NATO welcoming Sweden, Finland will put pressure on Canada’s defence spending: experts

The addition of Sweden and Finland to the military alliance, once approved, will also help reinvigorate NATO and bolster its Arctic defence from Russian aggression, experts say.

The welcoming of Sweden and Finland into NATO will put additional pressure on Canada to boost its own defence spending and contributions to the military alliance, experts say.

The two Nordic countries were formally invited to join the alliance Wednesday, marking one of the biggest shifts in European security in decades after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed Helsinki and Stockholm to drop their tradition of neutrality.

Once the move is ratified and Sweden and Finland add their well-trained armies to NATO’s ranks, “the question will be, why is Canada, one of the wealthiest countries on the planet … not improving our ability to protect our sovereignty,” said Aurel Braun, a political science professor at the University of Toronto.

“Right now, what we are contributing is not enough.”

Canada has yet to publicly commit to the alliance’s target for all members to spend at least two per cent of the national gross domestic product on defence, which was first agreed to in 2014.

New numbers released by NATO on Monday projected Canadian defence spending will actually fall as a share of GDP to 1.27 per cent this year compared to 1.32 per cent last year and 1.42 per cent in 2020.

Speaking Wednesday at a NATO summit in Spain attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his foreign and military ministers, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said all countries should treat the two per cent target as “the floor, not as the ceiling,” as the world grows more dangerous amid Russia’s aggression.

Stoltenberg told reporters that he understands the desire to spend taxpayer dollars on health care, education and infrastructure. But he added he still expects “all allies to meet the guidelines that we have set” for defence spending, “including Canada.”