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Short and gentle is generally not a sentence associated with the annual summit of NATO leaders, but this is probably what many member countries hope that US President Donald Trump returns to the table.
The Rally of Allied leaders will be the first for Prime Minister Mark Carney and the NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, who organizes the Netherlands in his country of origin.
What was initially a large and daring program was reduced to perhaps only one slogan: show me the money.
Member countries will debate the increase in the reference for defense expenses, from the current two percent of the gross domestic product to 5% combined (3.5% for direct military funding and an additional 1.5% for defense infrastructure).
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The allies agreed to the agenda closely targeted in order to minimize the potential to face Trump’s anger. There will be a dinner with the Dutch royal family on Tuesday, then a meeting of the Northern Atlantic Council on Wednesday before the leaders returned home.
Canada arrives at the top top off Carney undertakes to increase defense spending by $ 9.3 billion this year In order to reach the objective of two percent existing.
Going to five percent is another matter entirely. Carney said it was not a question of choosing a number and spending them.
Before the summit, reports were published according to which the NATO countries all agreed to reach the objective of five percent in the next decade. It is unlikely that this will argue in countries like Spain, which openly resulted in the objective imposed by the United States.
Even the Conservative Prime Minister of Belgium, Bart de Wever, was skeptical when asked on Monday.
“I am not at all comfortable with the figure of five percent. It is huge,” wever to Canadian journalists told a ceremony of commemoration of the Second World War in Antwerp.
“Ventilation in 3.5 and 1.5 helps a little … But 3.5 means that we must almost triple what we spend in defense. We have jumped at 2%, we are more or less in the same situation as Canada.”
The veteran of the Canadian diplomat, Senator Peter Boehm, said that avoiding the new target would be difficult in the current geopolitical climate.
“There may not be much choice,” Boehm told CBC News in a recent interview.
A former American ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, said that no one should underestimate Washington’s focus on the target – and the words Trump wanted to hear.
“The accent that the United States is looking for is that everyone says:” Yes, we want it “, said Volker in a briefing by the Center for European Policy Analysis. “We have a plan. Five percent is real. We will get there. We have a real threat in Europe. We have to do more.”
To reach the combined objective of five percent would oblige Canada to perhaps spend up to $ 50 billion more dollars per year for military and defense infrastructure.
“I am quite convinced that Canada and the whole alliance can do it,” said Rutte CBC Power and politics Last week at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta.
He said that the current commitment, accepted more than a decade ago, is no longer enough in the light of growing conflicts in the world.
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“With both percent, we just can’t go defend ourselves,” Rutte told the host David Cochrane. He said it could be enough in 2025, but not in three to five years.
“We have increased defense expenses.”
Boehm says he thinks that the objective of five percent is achievable for Canada according to “the calendar and the efficiency of the supply”.
The dying defense supply of the country has been the “Achilles heel” since almost forever “and Boehm said that it” will demand creativity to achieve these percentage goals “.
In a change compared to the recent years, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was only invited to attend the Dinner of the leaders, not at the meeting of the Allies.
Rutte insisted on Monday that Ukraine would remain a vital subject.
“You will see an important language on Ukraine, including the connection of defense spending until 2035 in Ukraine, and the need for Ukraine to stay in the fight,” Rutte to journalists in Brussels before the summit told Rutte.
Zelenskyy, however, has not yet confirmed publicly that he would attend dinner.
