Canada will not reach the 2% in military spending requested by NATO

Photo: Sean Kilpatrick The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Defense Minister Bill Blair (left) were at the base in Trenton, Ontario, on Monday to announce Canada's new military policy.

Amid an “international security crisis,” Canada will invest $8.1 billion over the next five years to strengthen its national defense – and $73 billion over the next 20 years . However, these massive investments will not allow the country to reach the famous NATO target, which wants its members to devote more than 2% of their GDP to defense.

Ottawa's new investments will instead increase its military spending from 1.33% of GDP to 1.76% in 2029-2030.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of National Defense Bill Blair made the announcement Monday at Base Trenton, Ontario, unveiling the defense policy update for Canada, entitled “Our North, Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for the Defense of Canada. »

“This is a significant increase in Canada's defense spending and [it] represents a major step forward in our efforts to spend 2% of the country's GDP, as agreed by the NATO members at the Vilnius summit in 2023″, we can read in the update of around fifty pages.

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In 2023, Canada spent only 1.38% of its GDP on defense in 2023, far less than many other countries.

In 2014, NATO leaders agreed that each member should spend 2% of its GDP on defense in order, among other things, to ensure alliance-wide operational readiness. In the eyes of NATO, compliance with this objective is an important indicator of the “political will” of countries to contribute to the collective effort.

This new policy replaces the current policy, “Strong, Secure, Engaged”, released in 2017, and defines the army's priorities for 20 years.

More details will follow.