Canada Reviews Defence Spending Ahead NATO Summit Amid Alliance Pressure

Canada's Defence Minister David McGuinty announced that Ottawa is conducting a comprehensive review of its defence spending amid mounting pressure from NATO allies to significantly increase expenditure to levels not seen since the Cold War. This review comes ahead of the NATO summit scheduled for June 24-25 in the Netherlands, where member countries are expected to agree on a new target of spending five percent of GDP on defence, a goal strongly advocated by U.S. President Donald Trump. Currently, Canada spends only about 1.33 percent of its GDP on defence, falling short of the existing two percent NATO benchmark. McGuinty indicated that the government will soon provide detailed announcements regarding financial commitments and outlined recent initiatives, including a $6 billion effort to secure the Canadian Arctic. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and U.S. Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth expressed confidence that the alliance will adopt the five percent spending target, emphasizing the need for enhanced capabilities such as air and missile defenses, artillery, ammunition, and drones. The discussions at NATO focus on setting capability targets to ensure member nations are prepared to meet both current and future defence challenges.