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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday he expected NATO countries to agree on a new commitment to invest 2 percent of their gross domestic product in defense at a summit in Lithuania, Vilnius.

NATO member states should "engage more," Stoltenberg told a joint news conference with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa in Lisbon.

The pact's secretary-general has repeatedly urged member states to accelerate the increase in defense spending after he said the world had "become a more dangerous place" since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.

Stoltenberg: Ukraine's place is in NATO

Seven of the alliance's 30 countries met the current 2 percent of GDP defense target in 2022, one less than in 2021, before the conflict in Ukraine began, according to estimates in the NATO secretary-general's annual report released in March.

NATO

Jens Stoltenberg

Defence