Canada’s Arctic defense investment on track to meet NATO guidelines, says minister

BRUSSELS (AP) — Canada appears on track to meet NATO military spending guideline soon, Defense Minister Bill Blair said Friday, including by increasing investment in the Arctic, near its shared border with Russia, as the region rapidly warms due to climate change.

After Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, NATO allies agreed to end budget cuts and spend 2% of their gross domestic product on defense within ten years. Canada was spending barely 1% at the time.

Last year, when it became clear that The war between Russia and Ukraine would continue to work, they decided that 2% should be a minimum spend. According to NATO figures, Canada would devote 1.33% of its GDP to its military budget in 2023.

“My defense spending budget will increase by 27% next year compared to this year,” Blair told a meeting with his NATO counterparts in Brussels. “We have begun the important processes to acquire the additional capabilities we need (and) to meet NATO’s requirements for us.”

He said Canada is investing “quite significantly in the High Arctic” and building new military capabilities like maritime sensors that can detect threats.

“I think that inevitably takes us to over 2% of defense spending. But I have work to do to be able to express that both to my own country and to our allies,” Blair told reporters.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he expects about two-thirds of the alliance’s 32 member nations to spend 2 percent of their GDP on their defense budgets this year, compared with just three countries ten years ago.