U.S. ambassador downplays Canada’s military spending shortfall, says Washington takes a ‘broader view’

The U.S. ambassador to Canada is cutting Ottawa some slack on meeting NATO’s benchmark for defence spending.

Speaking Friday at a panel at the Canadian War Museum marking the 75th anniversary of NATO’s formation, Ambassador David Cohen said the United States takes “a broader view” that goes beyond the alliance’s military spending target for member nations — two per cent of national gross domestic product.

“We choose to look at Canada’s overall commitment to defence,” Cohen said.

“We do look at the percentage of GDP that is spent on defence but we look at a wide range of other factors.”

Those other factors, he said, include the trajectory of Canada’s defence spending, its participation in continental defence and its recent announcements of  planned military equipment purchases totalling $44 billion. The bulk of those investments involve the air force buying F-35 fighters and P-8 Orion surveillance planes from the U.S.

Cohen has downplayed the significance of the two per cent metric in the past, but his remarks Friday were among the most pointed he’s made publicly on the issue.

Canada, like other NATO allies, agreed last summer to make the two per cent target “an enduring commitment.” More recently, the alliance’s secretary general and other member nations have publicly stated that each country should have a plan to meet the goal.

Canada’s military budget currently sits at 1.38 per cent of GDP. Neither the governing Liberals nor the Opposition Conservatives have laid out a strategy to meet the two per cent commitment.

Cohen’s remarks were made in front of a panel that included British High Commissioner Susannah Goshko, Finnish Ambassador Jari Vilén, Liberal parliamentary secretary for defence Marie-France Lalonde and the military’s director general of international security policy, Maj.-Gen. Greg Smith.

“I think Defence Minister [Bill] Blair has made it crystal clear that he knows that Canada needs to do more, has to spend more, has to move more as we move closer to the two per cent target,” Cohen said. “And for the United States, we think that a broader view is the right, most accurate and fairest way to look at Canada’s commitment to defence.”

Finland, however, takes the view that when you make a commitment as an ally to a target like the two per cent goal, “you have to obey it,” said Vilén.

Goshko agreed.

“I think we’re at a moment where the world is very conflicted and there are some very tough choices to make,” said Goshko, who added Britain has been pushing hard to get allies to meet the spending targets, notably since last year’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

“We were really pleased that all NATO countries agreed to it at Vilnius and we’re looking forward to seeing countries’ plans to getting there. We do think it’s important that every country has a plan to get there.”

Lalonde said she appreciated Cohen’s remarks and added the Liberal government has been working toward meeting its obligations.

“Canada always participated. We’ve always answered the call and we’ve made investments in the last few years,” Lalonde said.

Smith, who has spent time at NATO headquarters, described the alliance as a family that argues but in the end comes together.

“I’ve gone to Brussels and been talked at sternly by other members of the family from time to time, but in the end they all still say, ‘We love you,'” Smith said.

“The family’s not angry at us. They just want more.”

A recent report by the Canadian Global Affairs Institute argued that a commitment to hit the target would have spillover effects beyond the Department of National Defence. It would, for example, allow the Armed Forces to respond better to such things as calls for disaster assistance from the provinces.

It would allow the military to do more consistent planning and sustain deployments abroad in ways it can’t today.

“Such funding will not solve every problem, but it will make the CAF more consistently dependable,
relevant, modern and capable,” said report, released online this week.

“Without more serious attention to how our national defence and security institutions are organized and funded and how monies are spent, lamentably, the CAF will be forced to continue to do its best to manage a debilitating decline years in the making.”