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The Trump administration is walking away from a long-running body that works on Canada-U.S. defence initiatives, claiming Canada has failed to meet its commitments on defence spending.
U.S. Undersecretary of War Eldridge Colby announced Monday the Pentagon is “pausing” participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defence, an advisory body on North American continental defence established in 1940.
“Only by investing in our own defense capabilities will Americans and Canadians be safe, secure, and prosperous,” Colby wrote in a series of posts on X.
“Unfortunately, Canada has failed to make credible progress on its defense commitments.”
Colby’s posts implicitly lay some blame for the U.S. move on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s frequent statements about making alliances with countries other than the U.S., in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and his calls for making Canada the 51st state.
“We can no longer avoid the gaps between rhetoric and reality. Real powers must sustain our rhetoric with shared defense and security responsibilities,” Colby wrote in a post linked to a transcript of Carney’s headline-grabbing speech at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.
Eldridge Colby, U.S. undersecretary of war for policy, right, greets the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, in a photo Colby posted to X on Monday. (@USWPColby/X)
Senior Canadian and U.S. defence and diplomatic officials make up the Permanent Joint Board on Defence, which meets annually.
The board is an important symbol of the bilateral relationship between the two countries, said Imran Bayoumi, a former U.S. defence adviser now with the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, a Washington think-tank.
“Cancelling it is a needless provocation that sends the wrong message to Ottawa and other U.S. allies,” Bayoumi told CBC News.
