Canada is not about to meet its NATO defense spending commitments anytime soon, a long-awaited major defense policy update revealed on Monday.
In 2023 at NATO’s Vilnius summit, Canada committed alongside its allies to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense, but Ottawa’s most recent projections have its defense spend-to-GDP ratio hit 1.76 percent in 2029-30, at a ballpark of C$57.8 billion.
The news comes as a record number of NATO’s allies will meet the 2 percent target, and follows months of pressure from allies for Canada to end its free-rider status in the alliance.
It comes days ahead of Canada’s budget, details of which have been revealed in a stream of announcements designed to shore up attention on the governing Liberals as they struggle against Conservatives surging in the polls.
Canada’s Defense Minister Bill Blair nonetheless billed the new spending announced Monday as a “very significant and necessary step towards reaching our NATO commitment” because it sets out billions to advance it from 1.38 percent, according to NATO’s July 2023 estimates.
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