HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Canada’s military chief is working to soften the expected blowback from President-elect Trump’s return to office, with Canada trailing the majority of NATO allies in reaching the targeted 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for defense spending.

NATO allies not spending enough on defense is a major feature of Trump’s criticism of the alliance, slamming those countries as being in “default,” threatening to withhold U.S. commitments to mutual defense and taking credit for getting members to speed up their spending during his first term.

“Clearly the United States wants Canada and needs Canada to do more, our answer is yes. I’m in complete agreement, we need to do more,” Canada’s minister of defense, Bill Blair, said in an interview with The Hill on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum over the weekend.

“We used to figure — there’s not going to be an amphibious landing in Canada, in all likelihood, or a tank battle in Saskatchewan. We used to think it would be bombers coming over the pole,” he said.

“But now it’s cruise and hypersonic missiles and ballistic missiles and there are other forms of conflict: cyberattacks, challenges with space, attacks on critical infrastructure all of which means, we recognize we have to do more here at home.”

Canada is on track to reach 1.76 percent of GDP on defense spending by 2030, a policy that U.S. lawmakers have criticized in no uncertain terms as unacceptable.

© The Hill