Canada to maintain NATO defence contributions even if Trump wins US election

Canada's policy of increasing defence spending in the context of NATO will not change if Republican Donald Trump is elected President of the United States, Canadian Defence Minister Bill Blair told journalists.

At the recent NATO summit in Washington, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada aims to meet the alliance’s target of spending 2% of its GDP on defence by 2032, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

“I want to be clear. We have committed to our allies, including the United States, that Canada will allocate 2% of its GDP to defence spending... we are fully committed to fulfilling this promise,” Blair said in response to a question about whether Trump’s potential return to office would affect Canada’s defence expenditure.

Previously, during his time as president, Trump had exerted pressure on Ottawa to increase its contributions to NATO’s collective security.

In the summer, at the NATO summit in Washington, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would meet NATO’s target of spending 2% of GDP on defence by 2032. According to Trudeau, Canada will allocate 73 billion Canadian dollars (approximately $53.6 billion at that time) for defence needs over the next two decades. In April, the Canadian government announced plans to spend 1.76% of GDP on defence by 2029 or 2030.

On November 5, the United States is holding general elections, in which voters will elect the president, a third of the Senate, the entire House of Representatives, and governors of 11 states and two territories.

The presidential candidates are Republican Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, who represents the governing Democratic Party. Trump, the 45th US president, held office from 2017 to 2021 but lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Now, he is attempting to return to the White House. Harris has served as the US vice president since January 2021.

By Khagan Isayev