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Added on the 11/07/2018 15:08:51 - Copyright : Wochit
NATO members have agreed that their established goal of spending two percent of their national output on defence will become a minimum level, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg tells reporters. "Eleven allies now reach or exceed the two percent benchmark," he says at the end of the first day of the NATO summit in Vilnius. "And we expect this number will rise substantially next year. Today, allies made an enduring commitment to invest at least two percent of gross domestic product annually in defence." SOUNDBITE
British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and his Polish counterpart Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz visit NATO troops stationed in the northeastern Polish town of Orzysz. IMAGES
"NATO cannot be an alliance a la carte," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says after Donald Trump downplayed his commitment to the bloc's security umbrella in Europe should he become US president again. SOUNDBITE
A meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization kicks off in Brussels, with the US-led defence alliance's foreign ministers set to discuss NATO's ongoing backing for Ukraine against Russia amid doubts over US support and a bloody stalemate on the ground. There are fears that a lack of adequate support from the West -- at a time that it is distracted by the Israel-Hamas war -- could end up forcing Kyiv to seek a compromise with Russian President Vladimir Putin from a position of weakness. IMAGES
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says he has convened a meeting between the leaders of Turkey and Sweden on the eve of a summit next week to push Stockholm's stalled membership bid. "On Monday, in Vilnius, I will convene a meeting with President Erdogan and Prime Minister Kristersson, as the next step in this process," Stoltenberg says after talks at NATO headquarters with foreign ministers from the two countries. SOUNDBITE
International support for Ukraine remains "strong and true" more than a year into Kyiv's battle against invading Russian forces, says US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin at a meeting of dozens of Kyiv's supporters at the Ramstein air base in Germany. SOUNDBITE