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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers remarks before meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the NATO summit in Washington, Wednesday, July 10, 2024.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Trudeau says Canada expects to hit NATO defence spending target in 2032

By The Canadian Press

Published 10:20 PDT, Thu July 11, 2024

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After days of pressure from NATO allies at the annual summit in Washington, D.C., Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that Canada "fully expects" to hit the alliance's defence spending target in 2032 — but the government's newly announced timeline came with no new details to show how it will happen.

"We have shown that a responsible government steps up in a changing world and does the necessary work not just to increase defence spending, but to do it in the right way," he said at a press conference.

The 32 members of the alliance agreed last year to spend at least the equivalent of two per cent of national gross domestic product on defence. That built on a 2014 agreement by NATO countries to work toward spending two per cent.

Canada is lagging behind. Current spending is at around 1.37 per cent, and that is set to rise to 1.76 per cent by the end of the decade, according to the government's updated defence policy released in April.

Trudeau has been under pressure from allies this week to produce a plan showing how Canada will get to two per cent.

The issue has taken on particular importance with Donald Trump running for re-election in the U.S. The former president has been vocal about so-called freeloading allies who aren't spending enough.

American politicians also alluded to Canadian promises during meetings with the prime minister.

Trudeau began his week in Washington trying to deflect the criticism. In a Tuesday speech, the prime minister said the Liberal government has been following through on promises to drastically increase defence spending since it came into power, when spending was closer to one per cent of GDP.

Trudeau and Defence Minister Bill Blair announced this week that Canada is beginning the procurement process to buy up to 12 conventionally powered submarines that can operate under the ice.

Blair has long cited the new submarine fleet as a key component to meeting the spending target, but the government has not provided any estimates for how much the subs will cost or how long they will take to build.

Canada's defence budget has grown by more than 57 per cent since 2014, and it is estimated at $29.9 billion for this year. Only the U.S., United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Turkey spend more in terms of real dollars.

Nonetheless, 23 of the 32 NATO allies are expected to meet the two per cent target this year.

Some experts have said that Ottawa should have shared its plan ahead of the three-day summit so NATO allies would know Canada is serious.

"Tell them exactly what you are going to do," Fen Hampson, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, said Wednesday.

Trudeau gave no details on Thursday about how much money will be allocated to national defence to meet the target or how it will fit within the budget.

"The situation, the global context, requires us to be stepping up on defence," he said.

In a statement, Blair said the 2032 timeline is "in line with commitments by several allies who have made comparable pledges."