Trump says U.S. will ask all NATO member countries to boost defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP
Soldiers of the 41 Canadian Brigade Group fire a Howitzer during training at Canadian Forces Base Suffield in Alberta, east of Calgary, on Oct. 19, 2024.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday the United States will be asking all member countries of NATO — which includes Canada — to increase military spending to 5 per cent of annual economic output.
Such a requirement of members of the western military alliance would require a steep increase in budgetary expenditures for Canada.
Canada is still a laggard in meeting the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s target of spending 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence. Right now it spends about 1.37 per cent, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has said it has a plan to reach 2 per cent by 2032.
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“I’m going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5 per cent of GDP, which is what it should have been years ago,” Mr. Trump said in a speech Thursday.
“It was only at 2 per cent and most nations didn’t pay until I came along. I insisted that they pay, and they did, because the United States was really paying the difference at that time, and it was unfair to the United States.”
Defence experts have calculated it would cost Canada $17-billion more in per year defence spending for a military budget that amounted to 2 per cent of gross domestic product. A defence budget equivalent to 5 per cent of annual economic output would require tens of billions of additional expenditures.
No NATO members currently spend that much on defence.
The U.S. military budget is currently equal to about 3.38 per cent of its GDP, according to NATO estimates released in the summer of 2024. Poland’s budget is about 4.12 per cent of its annual economic output, according to NATO figures.
More to come