The United States has suspended its participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defense (a bilateral forum for continental security established during World War II), with US Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby announcing on Monday that Washington would halt involvement to "reassess" the body's value. Colby cited Canada's failure to make "credible progress" on its defence commitments as the reason, even as Canada, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, recently pledged to raise defence spending to 5 percent of GDP in line with a NATO agreement reached at the Hague summit. The move marks a further deterioration in US-Canada relations under President Donald Trump, whose administration has also imposed sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods and repeatedly suggested Canada should become the 51st US state — rhetoric that Republican Representative Don Bacon publicly criticised, warning it had gained Washington "nothing but animosity."