Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said he believes NATO should prioritize the war in Ukraine above several other concerns facing the alliance as he took a veiled shot at Canada for failing to pay its way.
“The only person who is benefiting from different crises around the world is [Russian President Vladimir] Putin because he can show the Ukraine crisis is just one among many others. Of course, he would like to see us have many other conflicts around the world and inside of the countries,” he said on Tuesday during an event with Politico Live and WELT.
The minister went on to take a dig at Canada, which is one of a handful of countries that failed to meet the alliance’s major spending requirements. Canada and Belgium are the only alliance members that failed to reach 2% of their gross domestic product on defense spending and failed to spend at least 20% of their spending on equipment, weapons, and other capabilities.
“We would like to see that still the focus will be Ukraine, but we also understand the Indo-Pacific situation and also, at the end of the day, well not at the end of the day, but then someone comes and says well actually the biggest problem is climate change,” Pevkur said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to speak on Tuesday on the sidelines of the summit to discuss the international security implications of climate change.
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Daniel Kochis, a foreign policy analyst who focuses on NATO for the Hudson Institute, told the Washington Examiner last month that Canada is “probably the biggest laggard within the alliance right now.”
“Oftentimes, it’s the European countries, some of the bigger European countries, which I think receive a lot of criticism for their lack of spending, but Canada, in terms of its economy size, in terms of its role in the world, is well underspending under the Trudeau government,” he said.