Lee Berthiaume – The Canadian Press: – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opened the door on Monday to spending more on Canada’s military, but stopped short of any firm commitments. “We need to make sure that the women and men who served in the Canadian Armed Forces have all the equipment necessary to be able to stand strongly as we always have as members of NATO. We will continue to look at what more we can do.” He did (Of Course) not directly respond to a question about whether Canada would finally commit to spending two per cent of its economic output on the military, after all NATO members agreed to the target in 2014.
NATO figures estimate Canada spent 1.39 per cent of its GDP on defence last year. The 2017 defence plan Trudeau referred to promised to inject $535 billion over 20 years into the military, which would get spending to about 1.5 per cent of GDP.
Germany, has dragged their feet on military spending for years, but on Feb. 27, three days after Russian troops began pouring into Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he would hike spending to exceed the NATO 2% spending target.
Appearing alongside Trudeau on Monday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his nation was working toward the agreed upon target
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“In early January the new cabinet started to ramp up defense spending by billions of euros,” Rutte said. “That will bring us close to two per cent, and probably we need to do more, particularly given what has happened over the last two weeks.”
