Two weeks after Bulgarian protestors vandalized an EU building in the capital city of Sofia during the anti-NATO March for Peace and Neutrality, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Stockholm over the weekend to protest Sweden’s NATO bid and new anti-terror legislation, meant to address Ankara’s stated reasons for opposing Sweden’s accession into NATO.
OTTAWA – NATO’s Secretary General is not denying that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau privately told the alliance Canada will never meet a defence spending target of two per cent of GDP.
“I’m talking and I’m consulting and I’m meeting with heads of state and government, prime ministers and presidents, across the lines almost every week,” Jens Stoltenberg said in a Canadian exclusive interview on CTV’s Power Play with Vassy Kapelos Tuesday. “There’s no way I can continue to sit down, discuss, with them if I start to report from each and every of those conversations.”
The anti-war movement has fallen for a progressive circus
In January 2018, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg held an unprecedented press conference with Angelina Jolie. While InStyle reported that Jolie “was dressed in a black off-the-shoulder sheath dress, a matching capelet and classic pumps (also black)”, there was a deeper purpose to this meeting: sexual violence in war. The pair had just co-authored a piece for the Guardian entitled “Why NATO must defend women’s rights”. The timing was significant. At the height of the #MeToo movement, the most powerful military alliance in the world had become a feminist ally. “Ending gender-based violence is a vital issue of peace and security as well as of social justice,” they wrote. “NATO can be a leader in this effort.”
The president of NATO’s newest member nation said the military alliance’s two per cent defence spending target seems “self-evident” to him — even as a debate rages over the fact that most NATO members, Canada included, are not meeting the target.
In an interview airing Sunday on Rosemary Barton Live, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said the Nordic country is committed to its current level of defence spending — around two per cent of GDP. NATO members pledged in 2006 to spend two per cent of their national GDP on defence.
“I think that it’s self-evident … To me, as a Finn, we usually do what we agree [to do],” Niinistö told host Rosemary Barton.
Not evident to Junior.
Beijing’s ownership of communications networks, harbours and shipping is being viewed with increasing alarm by western security services in their assessment of the threat posed by China and Russia to Europe’s critical infrastructure, a Nato official has warned.
In the aftermath of the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline last autumn, Nato has set up a special military unit to investigate the security of critical undersea infrastructure.
They are on to us.
The only shocking thing about that bombshell Washington Post report, that Justin Trudeau privately told NATO officials Canada would “never” meet the NATO target for defence spending of 2 per cent of GDP, is how entirely unshocking it was – to anyone, least of all our NATO allies.
Statements like this from Junior combined with his role in the China grift make me more convinced he is being pushed out by forces beyond CSIS.
Canada’s apparent unwillingness (or inability) to meet NATO’s defence spending target has not dented the country’s reputation among its allies, one of the country’s former top diplomats told MPs recently.
But the longer the war between Russia and Ukraine lasts, the more impatient other nations are likely to become, said former Canadian ambassador to NATO Kerry Buck.
Buck made her remarks before the House of Commons defence committee on Friday — just days after a report in the Washington Post, citing leaked Pentagon intelligence documents, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has told allies that Canada will not meet NATO’s defence spending benchmark of two per cent of national gross domestic product.
I suspect it was diplomatic courtesy.
The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said all member countries have agreed that Ukraine will eventually join the transatlantic military alliance once the war is over, ahead of a meeting of western defence ministers discussing further military aid for Kyiv.
Further announcements on weapons and support are expected after the summit at the Ramstein airbase in Germany, but Stoltenberg also sounded notably upbeat about Ukraine’s longer-term prospects for joining Nato.
“All Nato allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member,” he said. “President Zelenskiy has a very clear expectation, we discussed this.
Ukraine in Nato: Orban casts doubt on long-term membership plan
h/t TB
The Canadian prime minister has arrogantly thumbed his nose at the rest of the free world for years
Say what you want about former US President Donald Trump, but his insistence that all 31 Nato member states meet a 2 per cent target of GDP spending on defence was wise. This simple, straightforward request ensured each member was firmly committed to playing an equal role in this important military alliance. They would defend the safety and security of democratic countries from rogue states and totalitarian nations as a strong, united and cohesive unit.
One Nato member apparently isn’t willing to pull up its bootstraps when it comes to meeting the defence spending target. Embarrassingly, it’s my country – Canada.
A former U.S. envoy to Ottawa says he’s concerned about what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly said about Canadian defence spending.
David Jacobson, who served as Barack Obama’s ambassador from 2009 to 2013, says a recent Washington Post report could prove to be a setback for future U.S.-Canada relations.
The Post says Trudeau privately told NATO officials that Canada would never meet the military alliance’s spending target of two per cent of GDP.
Trudeau freeloads on Canadians, on his rich friends for vacations and foundation donations, it’s his lifestyle so its no wonder his neglectful governance reflects that.
He and his woke wrecking crew are destroying the CAF. That desecration will likely end up his legacy.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has responded to an American media report alleging that he privately told NATO officials that Canada will never meet the military alliance’s defence-spending target for its member countries.
The prime minister was asked by reporters on April 19, after leaving question period in the House of Commons, to confirm or deny the comments attributed to him in a report by The Washington Post published the same day.
TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has told NATO officials privately that Canada will never meet the military alliance’s defense spending target, according to a leaked secret Pentagon assessment obtained by The Washington Post. The document’s anonymous authors say Canada’s “widespread” military deficiencies are harming ties with security partners and allies.
Americans want their European allies to be less reliant on U.S. military might to defend the continent, a Newsweek poll has found, as policymakers juggle the dual challenges of a revanchist Russia and an increasingly assertive China.
The survey of 1,500 eligible U.S. voters—which was conducted on April 4 by Redfield & Wilton Strategies on behalf of Newsweek—found broad American support for NATO and Ukraine, but suggested that voters want to see their European allies pivot towards greater military self-reliance.
In China, Germany’s Baerbock says EU on same page as Macron
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in the Chinese port city of Tianjin on Thursday to begin her three-day tour of the country.
The diplomatic trip comes amid increased Chinese military maneuvers around Taiwan, which the German Foreign Ministry condemned on Wednesday, and in the wake of China’s renewed support for Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
The US seems to be striking out with the Euros when it comes to China and Russia.
After years of Canada’s allies politely suggesting that the Canadian Armed Forces should try being less of an underfunded disaster, there are signs that they’re getting increasingly impatient with the request.
At a meeting last week of NATO foreign ministers, the alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg threw out a thinly veiled slam at Canada, saying they will be looking to “ensure that allies are investing enough in defence.”
As the old saying goes, there are some things one must never discuss in polite company. Politics and money usually top the list.
If you’ve ever been to a NATO leaders’ summit, you know these gatherings are the epitome of polite company (with the exception of Donald Trump).
NATO leaders — at least in public — sometimes go far, far out of their way to avoid criticizing other leaders and nations, especially those who are perceived as not pulling their weight.
