NATO countries to discuss defence spending target - Stoltenberg

[January 03, 2023]  BERLIN (Reuters) - NATO countries will discuss their defence spending targets in the coming months as some of them call for turning a 2% target into a minimum figure, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the German news agency DPA.  

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gives a lecture on Russia, Ukraine and NATO's security policy challenges during the Civita breakfast in the University Aula in Oslo, Norway, December 8, 2022. NTB/Terje Bendiksby via REUTERS

"Some allies are strongly in favour of turning the current 2% target into a minimum," DPA quoted Stoltenberg as saying in an interview published on Tuesday.

Stoltenberg said that he would head the negotiations. "We will meet, we will have ministerial meetings, we will have talks in capitals," he said.

He did not say which NATO countries were calling for a more ambitious target, according to DPA.

The NATO chief said he aimed to reach an agreement no later than NATO's next regular summit, which will be in Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, on July 11-12.

(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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