Senator Gold: Thank you for the question. The government has agreed to balance its national and international commitments while actively increasing its defence spending. As the Prime Minister said during his visit to Ukraine, a lot remains to be done regarding defence spending, and the government is determined to meet the 2% target in due course.

Hon. Clément Gignac: Last week, some of my colleagues and I were at NATO headquarters in Brussels for the annual meetings with the parliamentary associations of NATO countries. It would appear as though 19 of the 32 member countries will meet the required defence spending target of 2% of GDP in 2024. With a rate of 1.38% of GDP, it seems as though Canada is still far from meeting the required minimum target.

In an interview last Tuesday with the Canadian channel CTV, NATO’s Secretary General said that he was still waiting for Canada to give him a date as to when it expects to meet its commitment. The U.S. ambassador to NATO added that Canada is the only member country that has not committed by providing a timeline.

On this historic day marking Sweden’s accession to NATO, when does your government intend to honour its commitment to our allies?