NATO summit | Critical minerals would achieve defense spending, says Carney

(The Hague) Canada will reach an even higher NATO spending objective, in particular thanks to the exploitation of its critical minerals and the infrastructure necessary for their marketing, said Prime Minister Mark Carney, during the annual summit of leaders of the member countries of the Alliance which is held in the Netherlands.

Carney is present in The Hague for the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and made these statements during an interview on Tuesday to Christiane Amanpour, of the American news channel CNN.

The leaders are currently debating the increase in the NATO defense expenditure objective. NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, offers to increase it from 2 % of the gross domestic product (GDP) to 5 %.

Mr. Carney said he expected that leaders are worth bringing expenses to 3.5 % of GDP within ten years.

Mr. Rutte’s proposal is to bring expenses to 3.5 % of annual GDP for the essential defense needs – such as planes and other weapons – and an additional 1.5 % for sectors related to defense, such as infrastructure, cybersecurity and industry.

Carney said that 5 % of Canada’s GDP would represent approximately 150 billion a year. NATO reported last year that Canada had devoted 41 billion to defense.

The Prime Minister said that Canada would achieve this objective in part thanks to the exploitation of critical mineral deposits and that part of the work would be carried out in partnership with the European Union (EU), the EU member states, the United Kingdom and other countries.

“It is therefore a beneficial element for the Canadian economy, but which is also part of our new responsibilities within NATO. »»

Critical minerals designate a series of metals and mineral deposits, including lithium, cadmium and nickel, which are key elements of modern technologies, whether computers, cellulars or high -end defense systems.

NATO published a list of 12 critical minerals essential for defense last year. Among these minerals are aluminum, considered essential by NATO for the manufacture of light aircraft and missiles, graphite, used in the production of assault tanks, and cobalt, necessary for the production of jet engines, submarines and nuclear reactors.

Canada has some of the largest critical mineral deposits in the world.

Concerns about the schedule

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anita Anand, was in The Hague with Mr. Carney on Tuesday, where she told journalists that Canada undertook to increase her defense expenses, but that she was wondering about the schedule to achieve the new NATO spending objective.

Asked about the acceptance of this proposal by Canada, M^me Anand said that her country had always supported NATO spending targets.

“The real question is the calendar,” she told journalists in The Hague.

She added that some allies proposed a 2029 deadline to achieve this goal.

“We would like to see stages along the way to re -examine whether this approach, by increasing national spending at this rate, is the right one. »»

At a conference call with journalists in Ottawa on Tuesday, M^me Anand said that it would be “imprudent” to publicly discuss Canada’s position before NATO leaders discussed it at the negotiating table, but added that questions remain as for the flexibility of the 5 %demand.

Any new spending directive must be adopted unanimously from the 32 NATO member states, and no member is currently close to this objective.

With 3.38 %, the United States’s defense expenses in percentage of the GDP were the highest alliance in 2024.

The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, both said he expected that the members of the Alliance undertake to achieve a new 5 % objective of the GDP dedicated to defense, up in relation to 2 % currently.

However, US President Donald Trump said this figure should not apply to the United States, but only to their allies.

Donald Trump shared on social networks on Tuesday screenshots of a text message sent to him Mr. Rutte. A NATO spokesperson has confirmed the legitimacy of the message to the Canadian press.

In this message, the NATO secretary general congratulated and thanked Donald Trump for his “decisive action” by ordering air strikes on Iranian sites linked to his nuclear program. He told the president that he “was heading for another great success” in The Hague and that “we have all convinced them to join the 5 % target”.

The United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Germany were all three of them to reach the 5 %target. The NATO countries closest to the borders of Ukraine, Russia and its Belarusian ally also committed to doing so.

A plan that is not unanimous

But not everyone agrees. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Sunday that Spain had entered into an agreement with NATO to be excluded from the new spending objective. Like Canada, Spain has long been struggling to reach the target of 2 % and has rejected the new proposal.

On Tuesday, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico suggested that his country would have an interest in adopting neutrality. He also published a statement claiming that the new objective of defense expenses would represent almost a fifth of the country’s budget, which he described as “completely absurd”.

Rutte warned on Monday that no country could escape this objective and that the progress made to the new objective would be assessed in four years.

The plan that Mr. Rutte should present at the summit provides for a certain room for maneuver to help the allies reach this high figure.

He would hire members to devote 3.5 % of their annual GDP to the essential defense needs, such as planes and other weapons, and 1.5 % in related areas, such as infrastructure, cybersecurity and industry.

NATO set the current objective of 2 % in 2014 and, this year, for the first time, the 32 member countries should reach it. In 2014, when the current objective of 2 % was set, only three NATO members reached it: the United States, the United Kingdom and Greece.

Defense expenses in Canada have not reached 5 % of GDP since the 1950s. NATO estimates that Canada spent 41 billion in 2024 for the defense, or 1.37 % of GDP. In 2014, Canada devoted 20.1 billion to it, or 1.01 % of GDP.

Last year, Canada said it would be able to reach 2 % by 2032, but Carney said earlier this month would be this year.

On Monday in Brussels, he also announced that Canada had officially signed a new defense and security pact with the EU, paving the way for defense supply agreements between Canada and European countries.

M^me Anand said this new partnership would expand the industrial defense base of Canada.

The main talks in The Hague will not take place until Wednesday and the leaders devoted a large part of Tuesday to bilateral meetings.

Mr. Carney met the leaders of Latvia and the Netherlands. He also met representatives of Nordic countries to discuss Arctic and Transatlantic security.

The Prime Minister was also received in audience by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.

Lauren Speranza, researcher at the European policies’ analysis center, said the NATO summit was held at a very precarious moment, marked by uncertainty about the commitment of the United States to Europe, the hard conflict between Russia and Ukraine and persistent tensions around transatlantic trade.

With information from Kyle Duggan, Ottawa, and Associated Press