U.K. takes aim at allies like Canada, wants higher NATO targets

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron is urging the U.K.’s allies, including Canada, to spend more on their militaries, warning the West needs a “harder edge for a tougher world.”

The current NATO target for defence spending is two per cent of GDP. Cameron wants it raised to 2.5 per cent.

Canada routinely misses the current benchmark, and last week Defence Minister Bill Blair signalled that it is unlikely to change in the immediate future, saying in a speech that it is “hard to convince people that that was a worthy goal.”

Cameron delivered a speech Wednesday, saying the war in Ukraine has shown that western democracies need to be “tougher and more assertive” in protecting their interests and values.

“If Putin’s illegal invasion teaches us anything, it must be that doing too little, too late only spurs an aggressor on,” he said.

The foreign secretary also pointed to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. When the Iran-baked Yemeni rebels ambushed commercial vessels, Cameron says most western democracies stood idly by.

“While many countries have criticized the Houthi attacks, it is only the U.S. and Britain that have been willing and able to step up and strike back at them,” he said.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently pledged to boost spending to 2.5 per cent by 2030.

Cameron’s speech was largely directed at the U.K.’s European allies, like Spain and Italy, which have failed to meet NATO targets despite an increasingly aggressive Russia.

“Some seem unwilling to invest, even as war rages on our continent,” the foreign secretary said.

But Canada is the only member of the alliance without a plan to reach the two per cent goal.

According to NATO estimates, Canada currently spends 1.33 per