OTTAWA — More than a decade after Canada agreed to hit NATO’s defence spending target of two per cent, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced $9 billion in additional spending to meet the threshold by this fiscal year.
However, the target, which was agreed to by NATO countries in 2014, is set to increase dramatically at a summit in the Netherlands later this month.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said he would propose an overall investment plan that would total five per cent of GDP in defence spending — 3.5 per cent for core military spending and another 1.5 in defence-related investments like infrastructure and industry.
Rutte said he was confident the alliance would agree to the new target, which meets the demand by U.S. President Donald Trump that members states spend five per ce