U.S. senators urge Trudeau to meet NATO’s 2% defence spending target

The bipartisan group of 23 U.S. senators said they are "concerned and profoundly disappointed" that Canada is not on track to meet its NATO and NORAD commitments.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is appealing directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ensure Canada meets NATO’s target of spending at least two per cent of GDP on defence, a benchmark Ottawa is not expected to reach this decade.

A letter to Trudeau dated Thursday and signed by 23 senators warns Canada risks failing to uphold its commitments to the alliance as it faces “one of the most severe threat landscapes in its history.”

It comes about two months before the U.S. is set to host NATO’s annual summit, which will mark its 75th anniversary.

“As we approach the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., we are concerned and profoundly disappointed that Canada’s most recent projection indicated that it will not reach its two percent commitment this decade,” the letter reads.

“Canada will fail to meet its obligations to the Alliance, to the detriment of all NATO Allies and the free world, without immediate and meaningful action to increase defense spending.”

Canada’s newly-unveiled defence policy update forecast $7.9 billion in new spending on the Canadian Armed Forces over the next five years, which would raise defence spending to 1.76 per cent of GDP by the the 2029-30 fiscal year.

The Liberal government has repeatedly declined to say definitively when or if it will ever meet NATO’s two-per cent benchmark, which was reiterated in the all-members agreement signed at last year’s summit.

Defence Minister Bill Blair says he is pursuing even more spending that wasn’t included in the new defence policy, including the purchase of a new submarine fleet, that could push Canada beyond 1.76 per cent and even get it to two per cent. But he also says those commitments first need to be paid for, and he has been trying to make the “business case” to secure the extra funding.