Brief and Sweet is not usually a phrase associated with the annual summit of NATO leaders, but it could be said that this is what many member countries expect, since the president of the United States, Donald Trump, returns to the table.
The meeting of allied leaders will be the first for Prime Minister Mark Carney and the general secretary of the NATO Mark Rutte, who is the host of their country of origin, the Netherlands.
What was originally expected to be a broad and bold agenda has been reduced to a single phrase: show me the money.
Member nations will discuss the reference point for defense spending of the current two percent of the gross domestic product to five percent combined (3.5 percent for direct military funds and an additional 1.5 percent for the defense infrastructure).
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a joint strategic defense and security association with the EU on Monday in Brussels.
The allies agreed the strictly focused agenda to minimize the potential to face Trump’s anger. On Tuesday there will be a dinner with the Dutch royal family and then a meeting of the North Atlantic Council on Wednesday before the leaders fly home.
Canada arrives at the summit fresh out of Carney’s Promise to increase defense expenditure by $ 9.3 billion this year To meet the existing objective of two percent.
Going to five percent is another matter. Carney has said that it is not about choosing a number and spending it.
Before the summit, reports were published that NATO countries agreed to achieve the target of five percent in the next decade. It is unlikely that this complete countries like Spain, which openly resisted the objective imposed by the United States.
Even the conservative prime minister of Belgium, Bart of Wever, was skeptical when asked about Monday.
“I don’t feel comfortable at all with the five percent figure. It’s huge,” Wever told Canadian journalists after a world war commemoration ceremony in Antwerp.
“The breakdown in 3.5 and 1.5 helps a bit … but 3.5 means that we almost have to triple what we are spending in defense. We have climbed to two percent, we are more or less in the same situation as Canada.”
The Canadian diplomatic veteran, Senator Peter Boehm said that avoiding the new goal would be difficult in the current geopolitical climate.
“There may not be many options,” Boehm told CBC News in a recent interview.
A former United States ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, said that no one should underestimate Washington’s resolved approach in the target, and the words Trump wants to hear.
“The emphasis that the United States is looking for everyone to say: ‘Yes, we say it seriously,” Volker said in an informative session of the center for the analysis of European policies. “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 target of five percent would require Canada to spend up to $ 50 billion more annually in the military and defense infrastructure.
“I am quite sure that Canada and the entire alliance can do this,” said Rutte CBC Power and politics Last week during the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta.
He said that the current promise, agreed more than a decade ago, is no longer enough in the light of growing conflicts in the world.
The main political correspondent, Rosemary Barton, speaks with former NATO general, George Robertson, about how the Roarm Europe Plan could help Canada reduce its military dependence on the United States.
“With two percent, we simply cannot go and defend ourselves,” Routte told host David Cochrane. He said it may be enough in 2025, but not in three or five years.
“We have increased defense expense.”
Boehm says he believes that the target of five percent can be achieved for Canada depending “on the timeline and the effectiveness of the acquisition.”
The acquisition of dying defense of the country has been the “Achilles heel ‘of the country since almost always” and Boehm said that “it will require creativity to achieve those percentage objectives.”
In a change in recent years, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was invited only to attend the dinner of the leaders, not to the allies meeting.
Rutte insisted on Monday that Ukraine would continue to be a vital issue.
“You will see an important language about Ukraine, including the connection of defense spending up to 2035 to Ukraine, and the need for Ukraine to remain in the fight,” Routte told journalists in Brussels before the summit.
Zelenskyy, however, has not yet publicly confirmed that he will attend dinner.
