Trump-Carney feud moves into military realm

The Pentagon’s announcement this week that the U.S. is pulling out of a joint military board with Canada marked a new flash point in a simmering feud between President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. 

Carney played down the decision Tuesday, but the move elicited an angry response from others in Canada, who widely see it as a warning shot to Ottawa as it looks to diversify its military purchases and scale back its reliance on the U.S.

“I think it’s a symbolic blow from a Canadian sense to have that measure taken by” Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, said David Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. “But I think it’s maybe also a bit of a wake-up call about how we’ve treated some of these unique forums of cooperation — that can’t just treat them as historical artifacts.”

The Permanent Joint Board on Defense was created during World War II and is composed of military and civilian advisers for high-level consultation on matters of mutual importance. It typically meets once a year.

In his statement announcing its suspension, Colby chided Canada for not investing enough in the modernization of its military and pointed to Carney’s remarks during the World Economic Forum in January, when the prime minister rallied “middle powers” to create a united bulwark to superpowers. 

Asked about the decision Tuesday, Carney noted Canada was spending 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense for the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, including a $40 billion investment in the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a joint military organization that serves as the primary early-warning mechanism for foreign threats. 

“I mean, it has a long heritage,” Carney said of the joint board, “but I wouldn’t overplay the importance of this.”   

Canadian defense experts said the suspension of the board was unlikely to undercut cross-border cooperation, given that the two countries have other channels and forums for communication, but they warned it........

© The Hill