Canada joins NATO push for 5 percent

Politico

5 hours ago

Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada is committed to reaching NATO's new defense spending target of 5 percent of GDP by 2035.
Carney told reporters at the NATO summit in The Hague on Wednesday that planning is underway to boost Canada's current 2 percent commitment to the new NATO target, which includes 3.5 percent for direct military spending, and 1.5 percent for industrial and infrastructure-related military investments.
'We are protecting Canadians against new threats. I wish we didn't have to,' Carney said. 'It is our core responsibility as government. And those threats, we see them — the evolving threat environment — most clearly in the Arctic.'
Carney noted that current Canadian spending is already underway to meet the 1.5 percent component of the new target.
'That means ports, airports, infrastructure to support the development and exportation of critical minerals, telecommunications and emergency preparedness systems,' the prime minister said. 'Much of this we are already doing.'
Once Canada meets the technical requirements of the 'NATO accountants,' the government will be able to meet the formal alliance target, he said.
Carney and Canada's 31 NATO allies agreed to the 5 percent of GDP military spending target, which was driven by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The alliance pledged to review progress toward the target in 2029.
Carney deflected concerns about the domestic trade-offs that could come with a major defense spending increase, including the possibility of having to reduce federal transfer payments from Ottawa to the provinces, which hold jurisdiction over the delivery of health care, education and many social services.
That would mean spending C$150 billion annually on defense, Carney told CNN in a Tuesday interview in The Hague.
Carney's comments indicate Canada plans to leverage its critical mineral wealth as part of its military contribution to NATO. The U.S. also needs Canada's rare earth minerals because they are required to power all 21st century digital technology, from high-tech weapons and surveillance equipment to everything powered by artificial intelligence.
'Canadian workers in shipyards, in labs, shop floors right across our country — we'll make the drones, the icebreakers, the aerospace technologies and much more that's needed to build a more secure world,' he said.
Carney also credited Trump with pushing through a ceasefire in the Iran-Israel war, including his use of 'not quite diplomatic language.'
Before departing for NATO, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn: 'We have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing.'
Carney noted the 'neutral language that the president used yesterday' and said 'the combination of those factors have contributed to a ceasefire, which is in very early days.'
Asked if he had any knowledge about the level of damage inflicted on Iranian nuclear facilities by American B-2 bombers, Carney said: 'I don't have intelligence that I can share with respect to that. I will say that the U.S. attacks degraded Iran's nuclear capability, nuclear weapons capability.'
Carney also defended the NATO decision not to hold direct meetings with Ukraine on the war with Russia.
Though President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended the summit, the alliance did not hold its regular NATO-Ukraine Council because it didn't want to antagonize Trump by deflecting from his focus on defense spending.
Carney said everything NATO decided will benefit Ukraine.
'I sat at dinner with President Zelenskyy last night, I had a separate series of conversations with him. I made points in the room,' Carney said.
'So, yes, it would have been better to have a session. We didn't have it, but in the actual session, myself, several others, made points.'
Last week at the G7 summit, Canada announced additional military and financial assistance to Ukraine.