Canada faces increasing pressure from NATO allies to boost its military spending, as it currently falls short of NATO’s target of 2% of GDP spent on defense.
Despite ranking seventh in spending among NATO members, Canada allocates only 1.34% of its GDP to its military, placing it ahead of only a few other allies.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s attendance at the NATO summit in Washington DC this week underscores concerns that Canada is becoming an outlier within the alliance.
Despite promises to increase defense spending to nearly C$50bn by 2030, which would equate to 1.76% of GDP, Canada is expected to continue trailing its allies in military expenditure in the coming years.
Canada’s defence minister, Bill Blair, said at the Foreign Policy Security Forum on Monday that the country will soon share a “credible, verifiable plan” to boost its military spending.
