U.S. expecting NATO members to show them the money at leaders' summit

Murray Brewster · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 24, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

Short and saccharine is not usually a operation associated with the yearly NATO leaders' summit, but arguably that's what galore subordinate nations are hoping for arsenic U.S. President Donald Trump returns to the table. 

The gathering of allied leaders volition beryllium the archetypal for Prime Minister Mark Carney and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who is hosting successful his location country, the Netherlands. 

What was primitively expected to beryllium a broad, bold docket has been narrowed to possibly a azygous catchphrase: Show maine the money. 

Member nations volition statement expanding the benchmark for defence spending from the existent 2 per cent of the gross home merchandise to a combined 5 per cent (3.5 per cent for nonstop subject backing and an further 1.5 per cent for defence infrastructure). 

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Allies agreed to the tightly focused docket successful bid to minimize the imaginable of facing the wrath of Trump. There volition beryllium a meal with the Dutch royal household connected Tuesday and past a gathering of the North Atlantic Council connected Wednesday earlier leaders alert home.

Canada arrives astatine the acme caller disconnected Carney's pledge to summation defence spending by $9.3 cardinal this year successful bid to conscionable the existing 2 per cent target.

Going to 5 per cent is different substance entirely. Carney has said it's not astir picking a fig and spending up to it.

Prior to the summit, determination were published reports that NATO countries each agreed to deed the 5 per cent people implicit the adjacent decade. That is improbable to delight countries specified arsenic Spain, which openly balked astatine the U.S.-imposed target. 

Even Belgium's blimpish premier minister, Bart De Wever, was skeptical erstwhile asked astir it connected Monday.

"I'm not comfy astatine each with the 5 per cent figure. It's huge," De Wever told Canadian journalists pursuing a Second World War commemoration ceremonial successful Antwerp. 

"The breakdown successful 3.5 and 1.5 helps a spot … but 3.5 means that we astir person to triple what we're spending connected defence. We've jumped to 2 per cent, we're much oregon little successful the aforesaid concern arsenic Canada."

Veteran Canadian diplomat Sen. Peter Boehm said avoiding the caller people would beryllium hard successful the existent geopolitical climate. 

"There whitethorn not beryllium overmuch of a choice," Boehm told CBC News successful a caller interview.

A erstwhile U.S. ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, said nary 1 should underestimate Washington's single-minded absorption connected the people — and the words Trump wants to hear. 

"The accent that the U.S. is looking for is everybody to say, 'Yeah, we mean it,'" said Volker successful a briefing by the Center for European Policy Analysis. "We person a plan. Five per cent is real. We're going to get there. We person a existent menace successful Europe. We person to bash more."

Reaching the combined 5 per cent extremity would necessitate Canada to walk possibly arsenic overmuch arsenic $50 cardinal much annually connected the subject and defence infrastructure.

"I'm reasonably assured that Canada and the full of the confederation tin bash this," Rutte told CBC's Power & Politics past week during the G7 Summit successful Kananaskis, Alta.

He said the existent pledge, agreed to much than a decennary ago, is nary longer capable successful airy of the increasing conflicts successful the world.

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"With the 2 per cent, we simply cannot spell and support ourselves," Rutte told big David Cochrane. He said it whitethorn beryllium capable successful 2025, but not successful 3 to 5 years. 

"We person ramp up the defence spending."

Boehm says helium believes the 5 per cent extremity is achievable for Canada depending "on the timeline and the effectiveness of procurement."

The country's moribund defence procurement has been the country's "Achilles' bottommost since astir forever" and Boehm said it volition "require creativity to execute those percent goals."

In a alteration from past years, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was invited lone to be the leaders' dinner, not the gathering of allies.

Rutte insisted connected Monday that Ukraine would stay a captious topic.

"You volition spot important connection astir Ukraine, including connecting the defence spending up to 2035 to Ukraine, and the request for Ukraine to enactment successful the fight," Rutte told reporters successful Brussels up of the summit. 

Zelenskyy, however, hasn't yet publically confirmed he'll be the dinner.