Shard

So the Orange One is badgering young Justin on Canada upping its Nato contribution to target 2% (from 1.4%)...what do we think? As a fairly peaceful country, unlikely to be invaded (other than by the US!) do we really need to contribute full target? And of course the whole transactional concept of full contribution is questionable too. I'd say there were more important things to devote dollars to than the American defence industry.

scot47

Best to ask the question "What is Nato for ?"

Shard

Protect against the Ruskies isn't it? There still appears to be a need, though I would do away with Trident.

dbd33

But Trump and Johnson are aligned with the Russians.

Shard

Silly me !

dave_j

Not any more.
It must have come as a bit of a shock when the Wall fell and Germany was reunited. What task had NATO then? Who would pay the bills?
In the time since, NATO has been looking for a role and a resurgent Russia fills that part nicely.
The US especially, needs a viable threat to maintain spending and if all NATO members increase their spending, where will they spend it?
In my view NATO has morphed into nothing but a mechanism to fund the defense industries of those countries supplying arms.

scrubbedexpat091

Trump is a bully and like all bullies attacks those he perceives as weak. Only way to deal with a bully is to stand up for yourself.

If Canada is going to spend money anywhere on defense it should be spent replacing and upgrading actual equipment, ships etc in the Canadian military.

BritInParis

The 2% GDP target is for a member state’s own defence budget, not contributing direct to NATO. It’s not the EU.

jimf

jimf

dbd33

I'm sorry but I missed the relevance of his past career. Is there a connection between that and the proposed policy; that the EU should cautiously engage with Russia?

Jingsamichty

I'm happy to be corrected here but is it not the case that the US defence budget covers the (extremely significant) costs of medical and welfare costs of injured servicemen, whereas most other countries put that in their health budgets?

Also, European countries generally don't have defence expenditure outside of Europe whereas the US spends extraordinary sums in Asia, nothing to do with NATO.

As ever, I suspect it's a case of Trump trying to compare apples with oranges.

BEVS

Yes.

CanadaJimmy

I can see the U.S.'s perspective on this, they always end up covering the shortfall when other nations don't pay their share of the cost. That being said, I think 1.4% is close enough to the target to not be worth creating such a fuss over, and fairly good compared to other NATO countries.

Shard

A %GDP chart would be more pertinent.