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LONDON — A NATO plan to get its members to agree to significantly boost their military spending has been derailed by Canada and Germany before it could be even presented to alliance leaders on Thursday when they meet in Wales.

With a backdrop of the worsening situation in Ukraine, NATO’s top commander U.S. Gen. Philip Breedlove and alliance secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said they wanted to use the summit to push countries to commit to spending two per cent of their gross domestic product on defence.

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The U.S., Estonia, the United Kingdom and Greece are the only alliance nations who have met that target.

But Germany and Canada have both said they won’t agree to NATO’s two per cent target.

“We are open to increasing military spending when and where it makes sense and in response to particular needs,” a senior Canadian government official said. “But the notion of setting an arbitrary target does not make sense.”