Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron is urging the UK’s allies, including Canada, to spend more on their militaries, warning that the West needs “a tougher edge for a tougher world”.
NATO’s current target for defense spending is two percent of GDP. Cameron wants it increased to 2.5 per cent.
Canada routinely fails to meet the current benchmark, and last week Defense Minister Bill Blair signaled that it is unlikely to change.
Cameron gave a speech on Wednesday and said the war in Ukraine has shown that Western democracies must be “tougher and more assertive” in protecting their interests and values.
“If Putin’s illegal invasion teaches us anything, it is that doing too little too late only emboldens the aggressor,” he said.
Breaking news from Canada and around the world delivered to your inbox, as it happens.
The Foreign Secretary also pointed to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. When Iran-backed Yemeni rebels ambushed commercial ships, Cameron says most Western democracies stood by.
“While many countries have criticized the Houthi attacks, only the United States and Britain have been willing and able to step forward and fight back,” he said.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently promised to increase spending to 2.5 percent by 2030.
Cameron’s speech was largely aimed at the UK’s European allies, such as Spain and Italy, which have failed to meet NATO goals despite an increasingly aggressive Russia.
“Some seem unwilling to invest, even as war rages on our continent,” the foreign secretary said.
But Canada is the only member of the alliance without a plan to reach the two percent goal.
According to NATO estimates, Canada currently spends 1.33 percent of its GDP on defense.
That figure is expected to rise to 1.76 percent by 2030, or $49.5 billion. The Department of National Defense’s budget last year was $26.9 billion.
Last Wednesday, at a NORAD modernization conference in Ottawa, the Defense Minister said it is difficult to persuade voters and even his own colleagues that reaching two percent is a worthy goal in the “current fiscal environment.” .
“Trying to go to cabinet, or even to Canadians, and tell them we had to do this because we need to hit this magic two per cent threshold… Don’t get me wrong. It’s important, but it was very difficult to convince people of that,” Blair said.
–with files from The Canadian Press
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
