NATO – Page 11 – Blazingcatfur

Thinking the ‘unthinkable’: NATO wants Canada and allies to gear up for a conventional war

NATO says it wants its members to develop national plans to bolster the capacity of their individual defence industry sectors, a concept Canada has struggled with — or avoided outright — for decades.

At the NATO leaders summit in Washington in July, alliance members agreed to come up with strategies to boost their domestic defence materiel sectors, and to share those strategies with each other. Almost entirely overshadowed at the time by debates about members’ defence spending and support for Ukraine, the new policy got little attention.

by Blazingcatfur•September 26, 2024September 26, 2024•0•"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

Trudeau Liberals will never hit NATO target if DoD can’t even spend the money it has

The Trudeau government is trying to assure NATO allies it’s moving in the direction of spending two per cent of Canada’s GDP on defence. Meanwhile, billions of dollars committed to new military equipment is being handed back, lapsed, re-profiled or simply not requested by the Department of National Defence.

by Sarcasticat•September 8, 2024September 8, 2024•0•Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

U.S. wants Canada to hit military spending target ‘as rapidly as humanly possible’: Biden’s adviser

Canada and other countries that are laggards when it comes to military spending should hit the NATO-imposed target of spending two per cent of GDP “as rapidly as humanly possible,” U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser told reporters on the sidelines of the Liberal cabinet retreat in Halifax on Sunday.

Asked by CBC News if he’s satisfied with Canada’s recently announced plan to hit that spending target in eight years’ time, Jake Sullivan said the Biden administration has pushed NATO countries to meet the spending threshold, and while some have complied, “there is still a set of countries that hasn’t — Canada is one of them.”

by Blazingcatfur•August 26, 2024August 26, 2024•0•"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada, NATO, USA

Canada downplays cost of meeting NATO spending mark as $60-billion projection will need to rise

Although the Liberal government has placed an annual price tag of $60-billion on its commitment to spend two per cent of Canada’s GDP on defence by 2032, unless a boost is on the way, it will still likely fall short when the goalposts funds needed to reach the NATO-sanctioned metric shift.

Canada is unlikely to meet the spending standard first agreed to in 2014 based on its own projections as it is relying on international forecasts for its GDP to guide its defence-spending commitment.

by Blazingcatfur•July 28, 2024July 27, 2024•0•"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

Canada Pledges to Meet NATO Spending Goal. It Won’t Be Easy.

Long seen as punching below its weight, Canada, the world’s second-largest country by area and one of its seven wealthiest economies, said it would meet its NATO pledge to significantly bolster its military spending by 2032.

But everything about the commitment, which NATO is pushing all alliance members to make, is fraught.

Some have criticized the timeline as too protracted, though it is actually compressed if seen through the lens of the slow pace of global military hardware production.

by Blazingcatfur•July 20, 2024July 20, 2024•0•Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

Michael Taube: It’s up to Pierre Poilievre to clean up Trudeau’s NATO mess

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) set a target in 2014 for member states to earmark two per cent of their national GDP for defence spending, noting that allies below this level would “aim to move towards” reaching the guideline “within a decade.”

Of the 31 NATO member states, only one still hasn’t met this reasonable target. Take a wild guess as to which country it is.

by Blazingcatfur•July 19, 2024July 18, 2024•0•"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Conservative Party, NATO

John Ivison: No one in Washington believes Trudeau’s empty NATO promises anymore

Justin Trudeau is so schooled in the art of denial that he now tries to deflect inescapable truths.

In Washington Thursday, at the conclusion of the NATO summit there, the prime minister unveiled what his defence minister, Bill Blair, called a “credible, verifiable path to two per cent” spending of gross domestic product on defence by 2032.

Let’s leave aside the fact that the plan is neither credible nor verifiable. Trudeau was asked if he was worried that the political problems that have dogged him this week will now hang over this country for the next eight years.

by Blazingcatfur•July 12, 2024July 12, 2024•0•Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

No one believes Trudeau’s sudden promise on NATO

Justin Trudeau wants you to know that it’s Stephen Harper’s fault Canada isn’t meeting it’s NATO commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence.

Sure, Trudeau has been prime minister for almost nine years and in that time government spending has grown from $289 billion to $535 billion over that time – an 85% increase

by Blazingcatfur•July 12, 2024July 12, 2024•0•Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

Trudeau Liberals’ indifference to NATO plays right into Russia’s hands

For Americans, the good news from the NATO summit in Washington, D.C. is that President Joe Biden managed to read a stirring speech from a teleprompter without too much stammering or gargling noises. While the threat of Donald Trump’s return to the White House looms darkly over the 75-year-old transatlantic alliance — Trump isn’t NATO’s biggest fan — for the moment, at least, the United States is NATO’s bedrock power. That’s all to the good.

by Blazingcatfur•July 12, 2024July 11, 2024•0•Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

Canada confirms plan to replace submarine fleet at NATO summit

The timing of the announcement could be an attempt to blunt criticism of Ottawa’s defence spending

Canada definitely plans to move forward with the purchase of new submarines, the federal government announced on the margins of the NATO Summit on Wednesday.

Up to now, the government has spoken only about the possibility of replacing the aging Victoria-class boats. But in the face of mounting criticism of Canada’s defence spending by allies — notably the United States — Ottawa has given the proposal the green light.

A senior government official, speaking on background, said they could not confirm how much the plan will cost, how many boats will be purchased or when they will arrive.

I smell bullshit.

by Blazingcatfur•July 11, 2024July 10, 2024•0•"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", "RCN", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

Stoltenberg: NATO Will No Longer ‘Strive For’ 2 Percent, It Will Be a Requirement

WASHINGTON–NATO leadership is working to ensure that all 32 of its member states meet a minimum defense expenditure annually.

Speaking to a forum of international defense industry leaders on July 9, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance’s ambition to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense will be considered a requirement rather than an aspiration.

by Blazingcatfur•July 10, 2024July 10, 2024•0•"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

‘Shameful’: Justin Trudeau called out by Americans over failure to hit NATO spending target

…On Monday, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said in widely reported remarks that it is “shameful” Canada still hasn’t hit the two-per-cent target.

He accused Canada of “riding America’s coattails” — an echo of criticism by former president Donald Trump, whose tenure in the White House was coloured by his declarations that America’s allies were free-riding under the U.S. security umbrella.

by Blazingcatfur•July 10, 2024July 10, 2024•0•Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO, USA

Tasha Kheiriddin: Trudeau taking the heat from NATO allies for cheaping out on defence spending

Canada is a cheapskate. We’re that friend who always “forgets” their wallet when they join you for dinner, who never splits the bill evenly because they “only had an appetizer,” who never treats their pals to a round but always drinks when someone else buys. Most us have had friends like this, and after a while, you stop inviting them out, leaving them to stare at the walls of their studio apartments alone.

by Blazingcatfur•July 9, 2024July 9, 2024•0•"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

The philosophy — and politics — behind the Liberal government’s desire to keep Canada a NATO deadbeat

There was an unscripted moment during a panel debate in Toronto last month that could go a long way toward explaining Canada’s long-term reluctance to publicly and wholeheartedly embrace NATO’s guideline for members’ defence spending.

Appearing on a panel at the Eurasia’s group’s U.S.-Canada Summit, the typically unflappable Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly was asked pointedly how Ottawa could be considered a reliable ally when it appears unable — or unwilling — to meet the western military alliance’s benchmark of spending at least two per cent of GDP on defence.

Big tranny army.

by Blazingcatfur•July 9, 2024July 9, 2024•0•"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", "Canada - Security Risk Under Liberal Party Regime", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

NATO is losing patience with one of its own members …

Canada has been dodging its commitment to NATO for a decade. It may not be able to hold out for much longer.

Over the past several years, Ottawa has become an outlier among the 32-member alliance. It has failed to hit domestic military spending goals, has fallen short on benchmarks to fund new equipment and has no plans to get there.

by Blazingcatfur•July 8, 2024July 8, 2024•0•Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO