Tag Archives: NATO

NATO has expelled eight Russian diplomats over espionage allegations, with Moscow lambasting the extraordinary decision for undermining efforts to normalize ties between the US-led military alliance and the Kremlin. In a press conference on Thursday, NATO head Jens Stoltenberg announced that the military alliance withdrew the accreditation of eight Russian …

Turkey and Greece will hold the next round of bilateral talks aimed at addressing differences in the Mediterranean and elsewhere in Ankara on Oct. 6, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Friday, as the NATO members seek to repair their frayed ties. Greece and Turkey are at odds over issues …

Turkey’s president has said he would consider buying a second Russian missile system in defiance of strong objections by the United States. In an interview with American broadcaster CBS News, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would have to decide its defense systems on its own. Speaking to correspondent Margaret …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed for a slower drawdown to encourage negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, according to “Peril.” President Joe Biden’s top cabinet members unsuccessfully tried to dissuade him from pulling all US troops from Afghanistan, hoping he would …

Russia used new combat robots and tactical vehicles on the second day of the active main phase of large military drills with its ex-Soviet ally Belarus, the defense ministry said on Saturday. The “Zapad-2021” war games, which will run until next Thursday on Russia and Belarus’s western flanks including sites …

Libyan interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh said on Wednesday he would visit Tunisia Thursday and meet President Kais Saied after weeks of friction between the North African neighbors over security. Neither the Tunisian foreign ministry nor presidency were immediately available to confirm Dbeibeh’s visit. The two countries have been in …

China has expressed concern about NATO’s assertions about an alleged nuclear threat from Beijing, stressing that the country is not involved in any arms race and its nuclear activities are for national security purposes. “China is gravely concerned about and firmly opposes the ‘China nuclear threat theory’ NATO has been …

The idea of a European army independent of the US-led NATO alliance has been around since the early 1950s but was largely forgotten during the Cold War. The concept reemerged with the signing of the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon, which proposed the defence integration of EU member states. Germany and …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday called for a dialogue with the Taliban as the group finalizes a new government that will set the tone for their rule in Afghanistan. “We simply have to talk to the Taliban about how we can get people who have worked for Germany out …

The Kremlin said on Thursday that U.S. military assistance to Ukraine could make Kyiv behave unpredictably and dangerously in the conflict in its east, and expressed regret at a U.S.-Ukrainian friendship it said was motivated by opposition to Russia. U.S. President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Washington …

After nearly 20 years of fighting against the US in Afghanistan, the victorious Taliban posed with captured American gear at the Kabul airport, held a mock funeral for NATO in Khost, and flew a Black Hawk helicopter over Kandahar. The last US troops left the Hamid Karzai International Airport on …

Two Iraqi ministers said that the “erroneous” formation of the Iraqi army ” is the main reason why ISIS was able to occupy a third of the area of Iraq. On Monday, Defense Minister Juma Inad said, in a speech during the Al-Rafidain Forum for Dialogue, that “the formation of …

The United States and allies are hurrying to evacuate as many people from Afghanistan as possible before an Aug. 31 deadline amid deteriorating security. The United States and partners have evacuated about 105,000 people since Aug. 14, the day before the Taliban entered Kabul, the White House said on Friday. …

There is a race among Arab countries to repair ties with the Syrian government as the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan is construed as a prelude to a US military exit from Syria, US news publication Foreign Policy says. The Arab world has taken note of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan …

Montenegro police said on Friday they had seized more than a tonne of cocaine, their biggest ever drug bust, concealed in a shipment of bananas, and that two people were arrested. The raid was carried out in Mojanovici, a suburb of the capital Podgorica in the tiny Adriatic country, the …

Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges the international forum to back Kyiv in its bid to overturn the 2014 seizure of Black Sea peninsula. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pledged to do all he can to recover the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula and urged international allies to support the effort. Speaking on Monday at …

Russia and Turkey are close to signing a new contract to supply Ankara with additional S-400 air defense units in the near future, the Interfax news agency cited the head of Russia’s Rosoboronexport arms exporter as saying on Monday. Turkey’s initial purchase of S-400s from Russia strained ties with the …

At least 20 people have died in the past seven days in and around the Kabul airport during the evacuation effort after the Taliban took over the Afghan capital last week, a NATO official said on Sunday. “The crisis outside the Kabul airport is unfortunate. Our focus is to evacuate …

There are currently about 5,800 US troops at the airport in Kabul to help with evacuation efforts, a US official said on Friday. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered about 6,000 troops to Kabul, a number that is expected to be reached in the coming days. NATO on Friday …

The head of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party has called the withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan the “biggest NATO debacle” since the founding of the US-led military alliance. “With the Taliban sweeping to power after NATO troops withdrew, it is evident that this engagement of the international community …