Trudeau’s reported NATO remarks a setback for U.S.-Canada ties: former envoy
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.officials that Canada would never meet the military alliance’s spending target of two per cent of GDP.Jacobson says the comments, if true, risk making it harder for the two countries to resolve future bilateral irritants.
“It’s a perfect example of what not to do in order to help solve some of the bilateral issues in both directions that are … legitimately very important to segments of the Canadian public and the American public.”The report, published online Wednesday and then Thursday on the newspaper’s front page, was based on a document from a trove of Pentagon secrets leaked in recent weeks in an online chat forum for gamers.
By comparison, the federal government in Ottawa currently spends about 1.4 per cent of GDP on defence.“What will happen is that the American public is going to decide, ‘Why should we do this? Why should we defend the world?”’ Jacobson said. It’s in the best interests of the U.S. to do it, he added. The Post story did not elaborate nor detail Trudeau’s comments. But it does describe complaints from a number of allies about perceived shortfalls within the Canadian military.
Defence Minister Anita Anand rejected the premise of the Post story outright in an interview Wednesday, after a meeting with current U.S. ambassador David Cohen.
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