NATO defence ministers have inched toward meeting U.S. President Donald Trump's demand that members of the Western military alliance invest five per cent of their gross domestic product in their militaries and related defence infrastructure.

The ministers, meeting in Brussels on Thursday, approved what the allies call an "ambitious" set of new capability targets, which they believe will result in a "stronger, fairer, more lethal alliance" that will be ready to fight if necessary.

How to fund those targets will be the subject of debate when NATO leaders meet at The Hague, in the Netherlands, at the end of the month.

At the centre of the funding proposal is a call for allies to spend five per cent of their GDP on defence — 3.5 per cent on basic military capabilities and an additional 1.5

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