‘I am not worried yet’: U.S. ambassador says of Canada’s unmet defence targets

United States Ambassador to Canada David Cohen says he’s “not worried yet” about Canada’s unmet defence spending targets.

In a keynote address Tuesday afternoon, Cohen said in part that Canada and the U.S. are “leading a coalition of the world’s democracies to support Ukraine, and now to support Israel.”

And when asked in an exclusive interview with CTV’s Power Play whether Canada’s unmet defence spending targets and possible Department of National Defence budget reductions could jeopardize Canada’s seat at that table, Cohen said he’s “prepared to wait” for the federal government to wrap up its currently underway defence policy update, and he will give Canada “the room to execute those strategies.”

Cohen said Canada has committed to plans to modernize Norad — the bilateral defence organization for Canada and the United States — and published its Indo-Pacific Strategy last year, both of which involve additional spending.

“So, you know, criticize me from looking at the glass is half full, but I’m going to take Canada at its words, that it’s expressed to me, which is a recognition that defence preparedness, particularly continental defence preparedness, is a critical priority,” he said.

“I think Ukraine and the situation in Israel only reinforce the need for the world’s democracies to spend money on defence,” he added. “None of this is free.”

Canada has long faced calls to increase its defence spending to two per cent of its GDP, the agreed-upon target by NATO members as part of the Wales Summit Declaration in 2014.

With that 10-year commitment set to expire, NATO members committed at their summit in Lithuania this past July that the two per cent target will become the floor, as opposed to a ceiling.

But the Washington Post reported last spring that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau privately told NATO Canada will never meet the target.

And Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre made headlines last month, when he expressed concerns that cutting nearly $1 billion from the Department of National Defence, as the federal government is looking to do, will impact the Armed Forces’ capabilities.

In a statement to The Canadian Press at the time, Defence Minister Bill Blair’s spokesperson said: “Any claim that Canada is ‘cutting’ defence spending is not accurate, because overall defence spending has increased and will continue to increase.”

The most recent federal budget projects that the defence department’s budget will be $39.7 billion in 2026-27, up from $26.5 billion in the current fiscal year, CP reported.

Cohen also discussed the Israel-Hamas war, including whether he thinks a two-state solution is possible, in his interview.

You can watch Cohen’s full interview on CTV’s Power Play in the video player at the top of this article.

— With files from The Canadian Press