Canada, pressured from US on defence, pledges more cash for military

By Ismail Shakil

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada, under pressure from the United States to ramp up defense spending, on Monday pledged billions more for the armed forces and said military expenditure would be closer to the NATO target by 2030.

In a defence policy update, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said protecting the Arctic, as well as dealing with security challenges from Russia and China, meant Ottawa needed to beef up its defenses.

Overall spending on the military is set to hit 1.76% of gross domestic product by 2030, still short of the 2% target NATO sets for member states, but up from the current 1.4%. Officials told reporters there was no target date to hit the 2% mark.

It is also unclear how much of the spending program will be put into effect, since polls show the Liberals badly trailing the official opposition Conservative Party ahead of an election that must be held by late October next year.

The United States has for years pressured Canada to boost defense spending. In February, ambassador David Cohen noted other nations were doing more and said “I don’t think Canada has any interest in being that kind of an outlier in NATO”.

Canada, which currently has an annual defense budget of around C$31 billion ($22.8 billion), aims to spend an extra C$8.1 billion over the next five years and C$73 billion over the next 20 years.

Canada, the world’s second largest country by territory, only has 40 million people and also plays a large role in monitoring a huge Arctic territory stretching across 4.4 million square km (1.7 million sq miles) of land and water.

“The most urgent and important task we face is asserting Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic and northern regions,” said the document, citing the increasing ability of Russia and China to operate in the north.

Canada will invest in a network of northern operational support hubs, sensors on the coasts and under water and a new tactical helicopters to replace Canada’s Griffon fleet, which will become obsolete in the next decade.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren)