World leaders are congregating in Washington this week to mark the 75th anniversary of NATO, the world’s largest security alliance. Amid Russia’s continued war in Ukraine, most NATO members are upping their defense spending to a minimum of 2 percent of their respective GDPs. Canada is increasingly seen as lagging behind: On Monday, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson called out Ottawa’s contributions as “shameful.”
Can Canada up its contributions? And how is it thinking about security to its north, especially as climate change melts new passages into the Arctic ice and opens new routes for Russian aggression? On the sidelines of the NATO summit, FP’s Ravi Agrawal put these and other questions to Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair.
Video clips from this event
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Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair defends his nation’s security spending, which remains below the NATO target of 2 percent. “I have no intention of Canada being a free-rider,” he said, adding that “Canada must do more.”
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Blair explains how climate change is altering Canada’s security situation, as Russia and China make incursions into what he considers “our Arctic.”
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Blair tells FP’s Ravi Agrawal that the relationship between Canada and India is a difficult but important relationship but one that his government is committed to reconciling.
