Minister: Canada will build up its military as the U.S. pulls back from world stage
Source: The Washington Post
By Alan Freeman June 6 at 2:10 PM
OTTAWA — Canada intends to make “a substantial investment” in its military because it can no longer rely on the United States for global leadership in the face of threats posed by terrorist groups or countries like Russia and North Korea, the Canadian foreign minister said Tuesday.
Echoing complaints made recently by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chrystia Freeland told Canada’s House of Commons that Washington has decided to forfeit its position of leadership on many issues, forcing Canada to invest in its own armed forces to defend liberal democracy.
“The fact that our friend and ally has come to question the very worth of its mantle of global leadership, puts into sharper focus the need for the rest of us to set our own clear and sovereign course,” Freeland said, never mentioning President Trump by name. “To say this is not controversial. It is fact.” But while criticizing U.S. foreign policy, Freeland conceded that Canada has not pulled its weight in terms of its military spending, a criticism that Trump has made of several NATO members, without necessarily singling out Canada. In 2016, Canada spent just over 1 percent of its gross domestic product on its military, half of the 2 percent level that is the goal of the NATO military alliance. In fact, Canada ranks 20th of 28 NATO members in military spending. The United States is No. 1 at 3.6 per cent of GDP.
“On the military front, Canada’s geography has meant that we have always been able to count on American self-interest to provide a protective umbrella beneath which we have found indirect shelter,” she said. But she added that to depend totally on the U.S. protective umbrella would make Canada a “client state.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/minister-canada-will-build-up-its-military-as-the-us-pulls-back-from-world-stage/2017/06/06/4c841a22-4ad8-11e7-987c-42ab5745db2e_story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
NOT that other countries have decided to spend more.
Au poutine, please.
