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
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada expects to hit the NATO defence spending target in 2032.
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.
Canada is lagging behind, with current spending at around 1.37 per cent, which is set to rise to 1.76 per cent by the end of the decade.
Trudeau has been under pressure from allies at this year’s NATO leaders’ summit 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., because he has been vocal about so-called freeloading allies who aren’t spending enough.
In a press conference this afternoon in Washington, D.C., Trudeau said Canada expects to reach the spending target in eight years, but he offered no specific details about how that will happen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2024.
