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Prime minister Mark Carney begins a two-day stop on Tuesday in the Netherlands, where NATO The members of the Alliance are ready to decide more than double the objective of defense expenses.
The main talks of The Hague will not take place before Wednesday, Carney for the first time to participate in several bilateral meetings.
Carney will meet the president of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof. He will also meet leaders of the Nordic countries for talks focused on Arctic and Transatlantic Safety.
The Prime Minister will also meet King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand should talk about journalists twice today, first in The Hague around 7:15 a.m., then practically at 8:30 a.m.
The US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, both said they expected the members of the Alliance to engage in a new objective to spend the equivalent of five percent of the Defense GDP, against the current two percent objective set in 2014.
None of the 32 NATO members spent as much in defense in 2024, according to the Alliance data. Everyone has undertaken to respond to the figure of two percent this year, including Canada for the first time since the creation of the objective.
A Canadian government official who informed journalists about the history before the trip said that the expense objective and his calendar were still under discussion. Some allies have indicated that they would prefer a seven -year calendar, while others want a decade to reach the objective of five percent.
Defense expenses in Canada have not reached five percent of GDP since the 1950s. NATO estimates that Canada spent $ 41 billion in 2024 in defense, or 1.37% of GDP. In 2014, Canada spent $ 20.1 billion, or 1.01% of GDP, in defense.
In 2014, when the current objective of two percent was set for the first time, only three NATO members reached the brand-the United States, the United Kingdom and Greece.
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All new expenditure directives must be made with the consensus of the 32 NATO member states, and no member is currently close. The United States, with 3.38% in 2024, were the highest, but President Donald Trump said that the figure should not apply to the United States-only to its allies.
The Rutte Plan should advance at the top contains room for maneuver to help the allies reach this high figure.
It would encourage members to spend 3.5% of annual GDP on basic defense needs – such as jets and other weapons – and 1.5% in defense areas such as infrastructure, cybersecurity and industry.
Internal divisions have emerged in the execution of the summit.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Sunday that Spain had entered into an agreement with NATO to be excluded from the new spending objective. Like Canada, Spain has long struggled to reach the objective of two percent and rejected the new proposal.
Rutte warned on Monday that no country can withdraw from the target and that the progress made to the new target will be examined in four years.
NATO’s accumulation of defense is also controversial in Italy, where the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, recently declared that the Alliance “had no reason to exist”.
Countries much closer to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have all agreed to reach the target, such as Norway, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, which welcome the two-day summit from Tuesday.
Canadian Defense Minister David McGuinty said “listened to” when asked earlier this month if Canada would accept the five percent plan.
Jan Techau, main member of the Defense and Security Transatlantic Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said that the overall ambition level in Europe on defense had “massively” increased in recent years in response to Russian aggression.
“The closer you are to Russia, the more ambitious you are,” he said.
Addressing journalists from a military cemetery in Antwerp on Monday, Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever said that even if he was not comfortable with the objective of five percent, it is important that the country remains at NATO. He also said that the ventilation offered of 3.5 and 1.5% “helps a little”.
Lauren Speranza, a member of the Center for European Policy Analysis, said that the NATO summit arrives at a “very precarious moment”, marked by uncertainty about the American commitment to Europe, the grinding conflict between Russia and Ukraine and current tensions on transatlantic trade.
Speranza said the meeting will offer an overview of how the Trump administration will address the Alliance in the future, following its NATO criticisms and calls on Europe to assume more responsibility for its own defense.
Rutte said on Monday that recent American strikes against Iranian nuclear installations were not a violation of international law.
Prime Minister Carney, who called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, said on Monday that Iran had pursued nuclear weapons while expressing the desire to eliminate the state of Israel.
On a statement on Sunday, Carney said that the Iranian nuclear program was a “serious threat” to international security and that Canada was “constantly clear” that Iran “can never be authorized to develop a nuclear weapon”.
Tuesday’s calendar also includes a reception and a social dinner organized by the King and the Queen of the Netherlands.
– with Kyle Duggan files in Ottawa and the Associated Press
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press
