{"id":1986658,"date":"2023-07-31T10:31:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T14:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-senator-calls-trudeau-canada-a-military-free-rider-over-nato-commitment\/"},"modified":"2023-07-31T10:32:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T14:32:38","slug":"gop-senator-calls-trudeau-canada-a-military-free-rider-over-nato-commitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-senator-calls-trudeau-canada-a-military-free-rider-over-nato-commitment\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Senator criticizes Canada&#8217;s NATO commitment, labels Trudeau a military &#8216;free-rider&#8217;."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgop-senator-calls-trudeau-canada-a-military-free-rider-over-nato-commitment%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1986658&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>A Republican Senator Calls Out Canadian\u200b Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Over NATO Contribution<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During an interview \u2064on \u201cThe Cats Roundtable\u201d talk show,\u200c Senator Dan \u2063Sullivan (R-AK) criticized \u2064Canada&#8217;s contribution to NATO. He stated that Canada \u200dis far from meeting\u2062 the minimum goal of countries spending 2% of GDP on defense, and claimed \u200bthat Trudeau had been overheard saying Canada won&#8217;t ever \u200creach that mark.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Canada: A Military Free-Rider in NATO?<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sullivan referred to a Wall Street Journal op-ed that labeled Canada as a &#8220;military\u200d free-rider in \u2062NATO.&#8221; The \u200carticle explained Canada&#8217;s failure to commit the minimum required by NATO and suggested that\u200b Trudeau deserved a spot at the &#8220;junior table&#8221; during the\u2064 recent NATO Summit in\u2063 Vilnius, Lithuania.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to the\u200c Wall Street Journal, Canada ranks sixth from\u2063 the bottom among 31 countries in defense\u2063 spending\u200c as a\u2062 share of GDP. Additionally, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-senator-calls-trudeau-canada-a-military-free-rider-over-nato-commitment\/\" title=\"GOP Senator criticizes Canada's NATO commitment, labels Trudeau a military 'free-rider'.\">country ranks seventh lowest<\/a> \u2064in spending on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-releases-list-of-president-trumps-accomplishments-and-it-is-historic\/\" title=\"White House Releases List of President Trump\u2019s Accomplishments \u2013  And It Is Historic!\">military equipment<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sullivan, who attended the \u2064NATO Summit,\u200d claimed \u2062that he repeatedly heard from other\u2062 attendees that \u200dCanada \u200cwas actively \u2062trying to &#8220;dodge&#8221; its 2% commitment. He also alleged that Trudeau had been overheard saying he&#8217;s \u2063never going to hit the goal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Trudeau, however, defended Canada&#8217;s contribution to\u2064 NATO and stated \u2062that \u2064the country would &#8220;step up&#8221; its efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Meeting the 2% Goal: A Challenge for NATO Members<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nearly a decade ago, NATO members \u200cagreed to increase defense \u2064spending to a goal of 2% of their GDP by 2024. Currently, only 11 countries meet that target, including the United States, \u2064Britain, Poland, Greece, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Romania, Hungary, \u2063Latvia, and Slovakia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Canada is one of six countries that spends\u2062 less than 1.4% of its \u200bGDP on NATO defense, \u200balong with Slovenia, Turkey, Spain, Belgium, and Luxembourg.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the recent NATO Summit, member nations issued a statement committing to invest at least 2% of their GDP annually\u200c on defense. They also acknowledged that in some cases, spending beyond 2% is necessary to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-u-s-navys-personnel-crisis-is-only-getting-worse\/\" title=\"US Navy's personnel crisis worsens.\">address existing shortfalls<\/a> and meet other requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Former President\u200d Donald Trump had previously \u200ccriticized \u200bNATO countries for failing to meet the 2%\u2064 target and urged them to contribute more. His \u2062efforts may have\u200c played a \u2064role in the increase of non-U.S. NATO allies&#8217; defense\u200b spending by approximately\u200c $50\u200c billion from 2016 to 2020, according to \u2062the Heritage Foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>their GDP on defense. He criticized Trudeau for not fulfilling commitments and urged Canada to step up its defense spending. Sullivan emphasized the importance of burden-sharing within NATO and expressed concern over Canada&#8217;s inadequate contribution. The senator&#8217;s remarks highlight the ongoing debate surrounding NATO funding and the role of member countries in maintaining collective security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1530,"featured_media":1986659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1986658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1530"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1986658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1986659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1986658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1986658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1986658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}