FAILURE OF SOME NATO MEMBERS — INCLUDING CANADA — TO MEET DEFENCE-SPENDING OBLIGATIONS ‘NOT FAIR TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES,’ TRUMP DECLARES IN SUMMIT SCOLDING.
Canada among laggards on defence spending
U.S. President Donald Trump opened the NATO summit Thursday by blasting 23 of the alliance’s 28 member states — Canada almost certainly among them — for not spending nearly enough on collective security.
As other leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, stood nervously to the side like wayward schoolboys hoping not to be personally named and shamed, Trump used his brief speech at the opening of the western military alliance’s space station-like US$1.2-billion headquarters in the Belgian capital to denounce almost all of those around him for not meeting their obligations. Such behaviour was not “fair to the people of the United States,” he said.
Trump’s criticisms of his fellow leaders on Thursday were identical to those heard from his predecessor, Barack Obama, when he addressed the Canadian parliament last year. But the message has never before been delivered so directly and with such public force as it was by Trump. Adding to the drama, the backdrop for Trump’s speech was a shard of steel from the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers, which is to be part of a memorial at the new NATO building.
Despite anxiety in European capitals about Trump’s propensity for saying unflattering and provocative things about allies, he received a warm welcome from his partners and relatively uncritical reportage about his visit. In going live with his arrival on Wednesday, Belgian television solemnly followed Air Force One from when it was a speck in the sky until it rolled to a stop on the tarmac while other media across the continent breathlessly reported everything he was doing. Forgotten for the moment were Trump’s remarks last year that NATO was “obsolete.”
Without a doubt, Canada was one of the defencespending laggards to which Trump referred. According to a recent table published by The Economist, by the measure of defence spending as a percentage of GDP Canada swims almost at the bottom of the alliance’s pool with such minnows as Luxembourg.
Many NATO countries, most notably Germany, have increased defence spending this year. Canada is until now the sole outlier, having deferred billions of dollars of defence spending in this year’s federal budget.
On Thursday in Brussels Trudeau dodged questions when asked about demands by Trump and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to honour the pledge, reaffirmed three years ago by every member of the military alliance, to gradually increase each country’s defence spending to at least 2 per cent of GDP.
Depending on which figures are to be believed, Canada now spends between .88 per cent and .98 of GDP per year on defence. But Trudeau and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan repeated vague promises that the long-awaited Defence Policy Review will call for some additional spending when it is finally published on June 7.
The Liberal government has tried recently to change the discussion on defence spending by highlighting what the government believes is the quality of its contributions to NATO missions. A NATO official familiar with the issue, however, said the alliance was privately deeply frustrated at Canada’s unwillingness to meet its obligations but that it would be undiplomatic for anyone in Brussels to publicly call Ottawa out over it. Expressing satisfaction with Trump’s pointed remarks on spending, the official said they hoped the U.S. and key European countries such as Germany would press Canada to do more.
In another move Thursday that will be unlikely to curry favour in Washington, Trudeau rejected an urgent request from Trump and Stoltenberg to provide more military trainers and surveillance aircraft for the war on terror in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
In fact, the prime minister confirmed Thursday that Canada has quietly shrunk its already small part in the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. It recently cut in half its aerialreconnaissance capability in Iraq by bringing home one of the two Kuwait-based CP-140 Aurora spy planes that the U.S.-led coalition had been using to target ISIL. This followed last year’s withdrawal of CF-18 fighter jets from bombing missions against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.
Withdrawing the Aurora aircraft was “simply part of a regular rotation that was routine,” the prime minister said during a 30-minute news conference. “There was nothing surprising or sudden about this.”
Trudeau did not elaborate on why the removal of the spy plane, first reported by the CBC, had not been announced as had been the case when the aircraft were sent to the Middle East.
Trudeau repeatedly emphasized Thursday that Canada was respected within the alliance, and “has always been recognized as one of the go-to partners.”
Regarding the appeal for additional help in Afghanistan, the prime minister said that Canada had provided funds to do development work and was “happy to be supporting in other ways,” but would not be sending any troops back to the country.
Unlike Britain, which has temporarily stopped sharing some intelligence with the U.S. over leaks to American media about the investigation into this week’s suicide bombing in Manchester, Canada will continue doing so, Trudeau said. However, he refused to comment on whether he distrusted Trump with intelligence information. Perhaps because of Trump’s reputation for retaliating against those who criticize him, Trudeau did not appear in Brussels to even want to mention the U.S. president by name.
The prime minister is to be in Sicily tomorrow where he and Trump will appear with other leaders at the annual two-day G7 summit.
UNLIKE BRITAIN, WHICH HAS TEMPORARILY STOPPED SHARING SOME INTELLIGENCE WITH THE U.S. OVER LEAKS TO AMERICAN MEDIA, CANADA WILL CONTINUE DOING SO. TRUDEAU DODGED QUESTIONS ABOUT TRUMP’S DEMANDS.