Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan announced Wednesday that the country's military spending would increase by 70 percent over the next decade.

Sajjan said the increased spending would create "a Canada that is strong at home, secure in North America and engaged in the world."

The plan envisages raising military spending to 1.4 percent of GDP in 10 years. Canada currently spends 18.9 billion Canadian dollars ($14 billion, 12.4 billion euros) on military spending, but that amount would increase to 32.7 billion Canadian dollars by 2026.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after US President Donald Trump demanded fellow NATO nations increase their defensive spending. The US accounts for more than 70 percent of NATO military spending. Only the UK, Estonia, Greece and Poland currently meet the NATO goal of spending at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense.

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"If we're serious about our role in the world, we must be serious about funding our military. And we are," said Sajjan.

Ottawa's announcement was well received in the US.

"The United States welcomes Canada's marked increase in investment in their military and their continued commitment to a strong defense relationship with the United States and NATO," said US Secretary of Defense James Mattis in a statement.

kbd/rc (AFP, AP, Reuters)