Foreign Affairs Minister Anand says NATO must turn its focus to the North

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand touted Canada's new commitment to defence spending and the domestic defence sector and called for a NATO policy pivot to the Arctic, at a major defence and security conference in Ottawa on Wednesday.

"We're reaching two per cent of GDP this year and five per cent of GDP by 2035," she said, referring to the NATO alliance's commitment to spend the equivalent of five per cent of GDP on defence within a decade.

That updated target was pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has accused other allies of freeloading on the United States. European countries in NATO have also moved to quickly re-arm as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues.

At the same time, Anand said, the alliance needs to shift its focus to the North.

"Last August, I raised the point about ensuring that NATO has efforts that are geared towards Arctic security and protection, and my foreign minister colleagues around that table, the Nordic Five, agreed with me wholeheartedly," she said.

The Nordic Five includes Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden — the latter two countries being the newest members of NATO.

Anand said Canada wants to see a NATO Arctic strategy that is more comprehensive than the Arctic Sentry mission launched earlier this year, and that includes a permanent presence in the region.

She said she planned to discuss the topic with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte later in the day.

The Conference of Defence Associations Institute's annual conference is focused this year on how NATO allies will fulfil their pledge to reach the 2035 spending commitment.

Former defence minister Bill Blair told the same conference two years ago that the military was in a recruitment "death spiral."

Participants in a panel discussion at the conference on Wednesday said the military has made some progress with recruitment, thanks in part to higher wages and recruitment bonuses introduced by the government this year.

Stefanie von Hlatky, a professor of political studies at Queen's University, warned that while Canada's spending commitments "assume that we can grow and sustain the Armed Forces now and over the long term," there are still major recruitment and retention challenges.

Maj.-Gen. J.J. Major, the Armed Forces' chief of staff for plans, policy and modernization, said there are now more people applying to join the military than there are open positions.

"Though it is longer, I think, than anybody would still like it to be, we have improved the processing time by about a month," he said.