NATO defense ministers have taken steps toward fulfilling U.S. President Donald Trump’s request for member countries to allocate five percent of their gross domestic product to their military and defense infrastructure. During a meeting in Brussels, ministers endorsed a set of ambitious new capability objectives, aiming to strengthen the alliance and ensure readiness for potential conflicts.
The funding of these targets will be a topic of discussion at the upcoming NATO leaders’ meeting in The Hague, the Netherlands. The proposal suggests that allies should allocate five percent of their GDP to defense, with 3.5 percent designated for basic military capabilities and an additional 1.5 percent for defense-related investments, including infrastructure and national resilience initiatives.
According to NATO’s 2024 annual report, Canada falls short of these benchmarks, having spent 1.3 percent of GDP on defense in 2023, with an estimated increase to 1.45 percent in 2024. When asked about meeting the new target, newly appointed Defense Minister David McGuinty stated that Canada is reassessing its expenditures and highlighted a recent $6 billion investment in an Arctic radar system in partnership with Australia.
Under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada faced criticism for not meeting NATO’s existing two percent GDP target, leading to public pressure from U.S. Congress members during last year’s summit. McGuinty did not commit to a specific timeline for meeting the revised benchmark but indicated that Prime Minister Mark Carney will address defense spending at the upcoming summit.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth expressed optimism that most allies are aligned with achieving the five percent GDP goal within the next decade. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has advocated for these updated targets to appease Trump, with reports suggesting a target year of 2032 for member countries to comply. Currently, Poland is the only NATO nation surpassing the 3.5 percent hard military spending target, allocating 4.32 percent of its GDP, while the U.S. spends 3.4 percent of its GDP on defense.