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What is NATO’s new 5% defence spending pledge, and how will Canada meet it? – National TenX News
Canada joined its NATO allies on Wednesday in agreeing to a new defence spending target of five per cent of GDP — but the details are more complicated.
Members of the alliance will have until 2035 to reach the new spending goal, for one thing. And the five per cent is being split into two categories: “core defence requirements” and broader defence-related infrastructure and industry.
Speaking to reporters at The Hague at the NATO summit, Prime Minister Mark Carney expressed confidence that Canada will achieve its new objectives after lagging behind the alliance’s spending goals for years.
“We’ve arrived at this summit looking forward with a plan to help lead with new investments to build our strength,” he said.
“The investments we’re making in defence and security, broader security, given the new threats that Canada faces — we’re not at a trade-off, we’re not at sacrifices in order to do those. These will be net-additive.”
Carney did note that towards the end of the decade, Canadians would likely need to have conversations around “trade-offs” for continued high defence spending.
David Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute who attended the summit in Brussels, said the defence spending increase Canada will have to undertake is the largest since the “massive” ramp-up during the Second World War.
“This is a complete game changer for Canada’s defence,” he told Global News.
Here’s what to know about the new spending pledge and what Canada plans to do in order to achieve it.
What’s in the 5% spending pledge?
The official declaration from the NATO leaders’ summit pledges a new commitment to invest five per cent of GDP annually “on core defence requirements as well as defence-and security-related spending by 2035.”
The pledge marks a substantial increase from the alliance’s previous commitment to spend at least two per cent of GDP on defence, which was agreed to in 2014 and which Canada for years consistently failed to meet.
The new target includes at least 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence expenditures, which NATO defines as funding primarily toward a country’s armed forces. That includes everything from large-scale military equipment like fighter jets and submarines, to ammunition, to salaries and pensions for military members, to related defence forces like national police and coast guards.
The second spending category is up to 1.5 per cent of GDP toward broadly-defined initiatives to “protect our critical infrastructure, defend our networks, ensure our civil preparedness and resilience, unleash innovation, and strengthen our defence industrial base,” according to the summit declaration.
NATO leaders agreed to review the new spending plan in 2029 to ensure it aligns with the global threat environment at that time.
“Our investments will ensure we have the forces, capabilities, resources, infrastructure, warfighting readiness, and resilience needed to deter and defend in line with our three core tasks of deterrence and defence, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security,” the declaration says.
How will Canada get there?
Canada has long lagged behind the previous two per cent NATO target. According to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s annual report released in April, Canada’s defence spending likely hit 1.45 per cent last year.
Carney previously announced Canada will reach two per cent by the end of the current fiscal year in March — half a decade earlier than previously estimated — with $9.3 billion in new funding.
Much of that money will go toward pay increases for Canadian Armed Forces members and enhancing existing military bases and equipment, while also shoring up the domestic defence industrial base.
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“At the core of our defence investment, of course, are the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces,” Carney said Wednesday while framing the earlier announcement as “working toward” the new 3.5 per cent core defence target.
Carney noted those military members “have not been paid to reflect what we are asking them to do” and have been stuck with outdated or non-working equipment.
“We’re making up for that and level setting that, and that’s an important part of just what we’re doing this year in terms of the increase in defence.”
As for the 1.5 per cent portion, Carney said that will include “ports, airports, infrastructure to support the development and exportation of critical minerals, telecommunications and emergency preparedness systems.”
He added that allies “will buy more equipment and technology made in Canada, by Canadian workers in shipyards, in labs, and shop floors right across our country,” which will not only contribute to that 1.5 per cent portion but also grow the Canadian economy.
“We’ll make the drones, the icebreakers, the aerospace technologies, and much more that’s needed to build a more secure world,” he said.
Carney noted much of the work towards those initiatives is already underway.
He’s previously said the major projects legislation passed by the House of Commons last week — which could become law by Friday after a Senate review — will ensure “nation-building” projects like critical minerals mining and transport will be built quickly.
“Canada has one of the biggest and most varied deposits of critical minerals, and we’re going to develop those” both domestically and with international partners, Carney told CNN in an interview that aired Tuesday.
“Some of the spending for that counts towards that five per cent. In fact, a lot of it will happen towards that five per cent because of infrastructure spending, ports and railroads and other ways to get these minerals. So that’s something that benefits the Canadian economy, but is also part of our new NATO responsibility.”
Carney also noted to both CNN and to reporters Wednesday that as the nature of warfare changes, with threat actors turning to cyberwarfare and pilotless technologies like drones, Canada will pivot toward those priorities as well and costs and expenditures will change accordingly.
That, he said Wednesday, makes it difficult to predict how much Canada will need to spend on defence 10 years from now.
Can Canada achieve all this?
Carney estimated to CNN that five per cent of Canada’s GDP currently equates to $150 billion annually.
Perry said Canada can reach the new spending targets on the timeline set by NATO “if the government actually makes it a priority,” noting it would cost less than what Ottawa spent to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and provide economic supports during that relatively shorter time period.
“That was hundreds of billions of dollars of spending annually,” he said. “This is going to be tens of billions dollars of spending — a huge amount of money, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not nearly as much on an annual basis as we did to combat the pandemic.
“So if the Government Canada wants to see this through, it can absolutely happen.”
Carney said international defence partnerships like the one Canada signed this week with the European Union, as well as the one being negotiated with the United States, will help keep domestic costs down.
“If you all of a sudden start spending a lot more money in one area, you can end up spending a lot more money on rising prices and choke points,” he said.
“That’s part of the reason why we’re co-operating more closely with the Europeans, part of the reason why we continue co-operation with the U.S. in the right areas, but also part of the reason why this increase will happen at a measured pace, or we’ll try to do it at a measured pace.”
Perry noted the wording of the agreement gives Canada and other allies “a lot less rigor and fidelity around the additional 1.5 percent of non-core defence spending.”
Kevin Page, the former parliamentary budget officer and president of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa, told Global News the overall spending increase is “feasible, but it will be challenging.”
“We’re going to need to see the strategy and the plan that kind of goes with it,” he said, both in the upcoming budget in the fall and other detailed reports on defence spending.
Where are other allies at?
NATO says it expects all 32 alliance members to reach the earlier two per cent target this year, compared to just three allies in 2014.
According to Rutte’s annual report, only Poland has met or surpassed the new 3.5 per cent target for core defence spending, having hit 4.07 per cent last year.
The United States — whose president Donald Trump has pushed for the five per cent target, as well as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, spent above three per cent of their GDP on defence in 2024.
The annual report noted that the U.S. last year accounted for 64 per cent of defence expenditures among all NATO allies, with the other 31 members making up the rest.
Rutte on Wednesday credited Trump, who has criticized the alliance and even threatened to not defend members that don’t pay enough for defence, for shifting that dynamic.
“He was totally right that Europe and Canada were not basically providing to NATO what we should provide, and that the U.S. was spending so much more on defence than the Europeans and the Canadians,” he said.
“Now we are correcting that. We are equalizing.”
—With files from Global’s Nathaniel Dove
World leaders are raising alarm after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on European allies in an effort to pressure Denmark into negotiations over Greenland.
The move is sparking protests across the Arctic and sharp rebukes from Europe and Canada.
On Saturday, thousands of people marched through snow and ice in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, chanting “Greenland is not for sale,” waving national flags.
Police described the demonstration as the largest they have ever seen in the city.
About 825 kilometres away, dozens of people rallied in Iqaluit, Nunavut, in a show of solidarity with Greenlanders.
“Greenland is owned by the Greenlandic people,” protesters chanted in Inuktut as they marched for an hour in freezing, windy conditions.
The protests came as Trump announced he would impose a 10 per cent import tax starting next month on goods from eight European countries.
These nations include Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland, because of their opposition to U.S. control of Greenland.
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The tariff would rise to 25 per cent on June 1 if no deal was reached for what Trump called the “Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”
The president suggested the tariffs were leveraged to force talks over Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark that Trump says is vital to U.S. national security.
French President Emmanuel Macron said France stands firmly behind Greenland’s sovereignty and rejected the use of trade threats.
“Tariff threats are unacceptable and have no place in this context,” Macron wrote on social media, adding that Europeans would respond “in a united and coordinated manner” if the measures are confirmed.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Greenland’s future is for Greenlanders and Denmark to decide.
“Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of NATO allies is completely wrong,” Starmer said, adding the issue would be raised directly with the U.S. administration.
Bob Rae, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, also chimed in on Trump’s announcement.
The tariff threat could mark a significant rupture between the U.S. and its NATO allies.
Greenland already hosts the U.S.-run Pituffik Space Base under a 1951 defence agreement with Denmark, supporting missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance for the U.S. and NATO.
“There is no sign of the Trump war of aggression against Greenland and Denmark letting up. It is not about ‘security’ any more than Venezuela was about ‘narco-terrorism.’ They are both about seizing control and plunder.”
He further added, “No country, including my own, Canada, is safe or secure.”
The tariff threat could mark a significant rupture between the U.S. and its NATO allies.
Trump is expected to face questions about the proposed tariffs and Greenland later this week.
He is scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, alongside several European leaders he has threatened with tariffs.
— With files from The Canadian Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Doha on Saturday as part of a push to attract foreign investment and deepen Canada’s economic partnerships beyond its traditional allies.
Carney’s visit comes on the heels of his visit to China and follows the recent presentation of a new federal investment budget aimed at positioning Canada as a stable, attractive destination for global capital.
In a news conference on Saturday, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Canada is working to broaden its economic relationships as global trade patterns shift.
Qatar is viewed by Ottawa as a strategic partner, with officials pointing to the country’s significant investment capacity and growing influence on the global stage.
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“We need to reduce our dependence and increase our self-reliance to find a strategic path forward,” Champagne said.
“Engaging with the Middle East and China is necessary for Canada, just like our European partners have done,” Champagne added. “We buy more from the U.S.A. than anywhere else, but the trading climate right now is different.”
The conference highlighted Canada’s industrial capacity and trade advantages as key selling points for potential investors.
Champagne also said international engagement is critical as Canada works to raise its profile among global investors.
“We are one of the G7s with very big industries. We build cars, planes, ships, we have an abundance of energy, and we are the only one with free trade with all G7,” Champagne said. “With the way the world is changing, you better diversify, supply chain is changing and we need to adapt.”
Prime Minister Carney is expected to meet with senior Qatari officials, including Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, as well as representatives of the Qatar Investment Authority.
His office says the talks will focus on expanding trade access and forging partnerships in artificial intelligence, infrastructure, energy and defence.
The visit comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions in the region, though officials say the schedule remains unchanged.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
The possibility of a forceful U.S. takeover of Greenland is raising many unprecedented questions — including how Canada, the European Union and NATO could respond or even retaliate against an ostensible ally.
A high-level meeting between Greenlandic, Danish and U.S. officials this week did not resolve the “fundamental disagreement” over the territory’s sovereignty but did set the stage for more talks. The White House made clear Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to control Greenland has not changed after the meeting.
“He wants the United States to acquire Greenland. He thinks it’s in our best national security to do that,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Denmark and European allies are sending more troops to the territory in a show of force and to display a commitment to Arctic security.
Experts say there are other, non-military measures available in the event of a U.S. annexation or invasion of Greenland, or which could at least be threatened to try and get Trump to back down.
Whether those economic measures are actually used is another matter, those experts say.
“I think it remains highly unlikely that we’ll get to that point where we have to seriously discuss consequences for a U.S. move on Greenland,” said Otto Svendsen, an associate fellow with the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“So it remains contingency planning for a highly unlikely event. That being said … Denmark would certainly do everything in its power to rally a very robust European response.”
Here’s what that could entail.
EU trade, tech disruptions?
Experts agree the biggest pressure points that can be used in the U.S. surround trade and technology.
The European Parliament’s trade committee is currently debating whether to postpone implementing the trade deal signed between Trump and the EU last summer to protest the threats against Greenland, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Many lawmakers have complained that the deal is lopsided, with the EU required to cut most import duties while the U.S. sticks to a broad 15 per cent tariff for European goods.
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An even bolder move would be triggering the EU’s anti-coercion instrument — known as the “trade bazooka” — that would allow the bloc to hit non-member nations with tariffs, trade restrictions, foreign investment bans, and other penalties if that country is found to be using coercive economic measures.
Although the regulation defines coercion as “measures affecting trade and investment,” Svendsen said it could feasibly be used in a diplomatic or territorial dispute as well.
“EU lawyers have proven themselves to be very creative in recent years,” he said.
However, David Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said in an email that economic measures against the U.S. are unlikely “given the massive asymmetry in the defence and economic relationship between the U.S.” and other western nations.
“Any kind of sanction against the U.S. doesn’t make sense for the same reason they can impose tariffs on others: they have the power,” Perry added.
Target U.S. tech companies?
The likeliest — and potentially least harmful — scenario for retaliation in the event of an attack on Greenland, Svendsen said, would be fines or bans against U.S. tech companies like Google, Meta and X operating in Europe.
That’s because the Trump administration has taken particular focus on preventing what they call “attacks” on American companies by foreign governments seeking to regulate their online content or tax their revenues, which has led to calls on Canada, Britain and the EU to repeal laws like digital services taxes.
“I think that would be a really smart and targeted way to get to economic interests very close to the president, while minimizing the direct impact on the on the European economy,” Svendsen said, calling such a move “low-hanging fruit.”
He also compared a future U.S. tech platform ban to how Europe moved to wean itself off Russian gas after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“If you told anyone back then that Europe would basically rid itself of its dependence on Russian gas basically within a two-year period … that would have been considered completely impossible,” he said.
“Weaning the European economy off of U.S. tech would certainly be painful in the short term, but they’ve proven that they can get off those dependencies quickly if there is political will behind it in the past.”
A U.S. hostile takeover of Greenland would mean the “end” of the NATO alliance, experts and European leaders have said.
Trump himself has acknowledged it could be a “choice” between preserving the alliance or acquiring Greenland.
There is no provision within the NATO founding treaty that addresses the possibility of a NATO member taking territory from another, and how the alliance should respond to such an act.
A NATO spokesperson told Global News it wouldn’t “speculate on hypothetical scenarios” when asked how it could potentially act.
“None of this would be actionable in a NATO sense,” Perry said. “It’s an alliance that’s organized to bind the U.S. to European security, and revolves around the U.S. So there’s no scenario of NATO doing that to the U.S.”
Denmark and other European nations could move to reduce or close U.S. military bases in their countries as a possible response, experts say.
Balkan Devlen, a a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and director of its Transatlantic Program, said in an interview that a U.S. annexation of Greenland would force Canada to focus entirely on boosting its defences in the Arctic.
That may include trying to decouple from NORAD, the joint northern defence network with the U.S., in favour of a purely domestic Arctic command, he said — although that process would take years and require Canada to increase defence spending even further.
“Never mind five per cent (of GDP) — we will probably need to go like seven, eight, nine per cent on defence spending to be able to do anything of that sort,” he said. “It’s not even clear that we’ll be able to have enough people to do that.”
Devlen added that any retaliatory action, whether military or financial, needs to be targeted and proportionate to what the U.S. does.
“The problem with nuclear options is that once you use it, it’s gone,” he said. “And if it doesn’t do the damage or make the change of behaviour on the other party, you’ve basically lost a lot of leverage and you might actually sustain a lot more loss yourself.”
“Unacceptable’: Allies react to Trump Greenland tariff threats – National TenX News
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How could Canada, EU, NATO respond to a U.S. takeover of Greenland? – National TenX News
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