Declaring that Canada is too dependent on the United States for its defense, Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday committed to having his country meet NATO’s spending target this year, seven years ahead of schedule.
President Trump and leaders of other allied nations have long criticized Canada for consistently falling well short of NATO’s goal of a military budget equal to 2 percent of each member’s gross domestic product.
Canada’s previous government, under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, planned to raise Canada’s spending, which is at 1.37 percent, to meet the military alliance’s target by 2032.
Mr. Carney, speaking in Toronto, said that new geopolitical threats, advances in technology and the fraying of Canada’s alliance with the United States demanded an accelerated spending schedule.
“We stood shoulder to shoulder with the Americans throughout the Cold War and in the decades that followed, as the United States played a dominant role on the world stage,” he said. “Today, that dominance is a thing of the past.”
“It is time for Canada to chart its own path,” he added, “and to assert itself on the international stage.”
While Mr. Carney promised to increase spending by billions of Canadian dollars, he did not specify where the funds would come from. Government officials spoke mostly in broad terms about how the money would be used.
Canada’s economy is heavily dependent on exports to the United States, and Mr. Trump’s tariffs have targeted key industries, including auto and steel. Some economists have warned that Canada could face a recession if the tariffs persist.
Mr. Carney also said the country would no longer rely as extensively on American defense contractors to supply its armed forces, underscoring Canada’s strained relations with the United States and focus on shifting away from its neighbor.
The Canadian government said it would immediately add 9.3 billion Canadian dollars, about $6.8 billion, to its defense budget. That will raise total defense-related spending this year to 62.7 billion dollars, slightly higher than the 2 percent NATO target. To get there, the government included 2.5 billion Canadian dollars in spending related to “defense and security” for other departments, including the Canadian Coast Guard, an unarmed civilian agency which is under the department of fisheries.
Mr. Carney’s spending pledge was welcomed by defense analysts.
“This is a long-overdue announcement,” said Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the graduate school of international affairs at the University of Ottawa. “This significant commitment is remarkable given how quickly they’re going to have to move to make 2 percent by the end of the fiscal year.”
But, she added, Mr. Carney will have to add further budget increases to fund all of the programs he is promising.
Mr. Carney laid out a long shopping list for the military, including “new submarines, aircraft, ships, arm vehicles and artillery.”
He also said the military would add drones and sensors to monitor the seafloor in the Arctic, a vast region of the country that is becoming a source of competition among global powers like Russia and China.
But Canadian officials said that this year most of the spending would go toward things like increasing the pay and the benefits of armed forces members to help ease a severe recruitment crisis, and repairing broken equipment.
Mr. Carney also said that money would be directed toward much-needed improvements, noting that three of the Royal Canadian Navy’s four diesel submarines were not seaworthy.
“We will repair and maintain our ships, our aircraft and infrastructure that for too long we allowed to rust and deteriorate,” the prime minister said.
Other spending will focus on artificial intelligence and computer systems, as well as ammunition production within the country.
Mr. Carney also said that Canada would look to buy more goods domestically or from allies other than the United States to equip its military.
“We should no longer send three-quarters of our defense capital spending to America,” he said.
But even if Canada is able to finally hit the 2 percent threshold, that is not likely to be enough to satisfy the United States or other NATO allies.
Mark Rutte, NATO’s secretary general, speaking in London on Monday, called on the alliance’s members to make a “quantum leap in our collective defense” by committing to significantly higher spending targets.
Mr. Rutte wants members to commit to spending 5 percent of their gross domestic products on military and defense-related activities. Mr. Trump has called for a similar spending target.
Proposals for increased spending are likely to dominate the NATO summit meeting in The Hague this month, though Mr. Rutte has not set a timeline for his increased spending plan.
Mr. Carney said on Monday that details about how the country’s military needs would be financed would be revealed when a budget was released in the fall.
“Our fundamental goal in all of this is to protect Canadians,” he told reporters, “not to satisfy NATO accountants.”
Mark Landler contributed reporting.
Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times based in Ottawa. He covers politics, culture and the people of Canada and has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].
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