Category: NATOSource

NATO mulls Afghan troops, decision hinges on Obama

By Reuters

From Reuters: NATO’s top defence officials will examine proposals on Saturday for a big troop surge to contain Afghanistan’s escalating insurgency but any such move hinges on a decision by the U.S. president, NATO military officials said… Military Committee members told Reuters the response of others in the 28-nation NATO alliance to McChrystal’s call, and […]

NATOSource: Defense Ministers to Discuss Gap in Alliance Capabilities

By NATO

From NATO: [T]he informal working dinner of the NATO Defence Ministers will begin at 7:30 on Thursday [10/22], 7:30 p.m. It will be Ministers only, so they will have a free exchange of views. The focus of the discussion will be on what we call transformation. I think there are two areas where the Secretary […]

NATOSource: UK Prime Minister Decides to Send More Troops to Afghanistan

By the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

From the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom: [T]o support our plan to train more Afghan soldiers and police, while at the same time maintaining the security of our forces, I have agreed in principle a new force level subject to the following conditions. First, that a new Afghan government demonstrates its […]

Russia insists on setting up new medium to discuss European security

By Interfax

From Interfax: Russia has not dropped its plans to develop a new European security treaty and believes Europe needs a new universal medium for discussing its problems, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said. “We believe that not all European security problems can be resolved within the framework of the existing institutions, such as NATO, the OSCE, […]

Russia must prepare for NATO defeat in Afghanistan, ambassador says

By Deutsche Presse-Agentur

From Deutsche Presse-Agentur: NATO is facing defeat in Afghanistan, and Russia and the states of Central Asia must be ready to pick up the pieces, Russia’s ambassador to NATO said Tuesday.Discussions at a conference in Paris on the future of Afghanistan run by the East-West Institute think tank “have only further enhanced the impression of […]

US faults Turks for canceling NATO air exercises

By the AP

From the AP: State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Tuesday, however, that “as to the question of whether there was a government that was invited to participate and then removed at the last minute, we think it’s inappropriate for any nation to be removed from an exercise like this at the last minute.” He was […]

Scope of common security and defence policy remains divisive

By the Irish Times

From the Irish Times: Gen [Henri] Bentégeat [chair of the EU military committee], who will retire next month, has had the tricky job of implementing the military aspects of ESDP missions in this complex political environment over the past three years. So has there been progress? “On the military side there has been some progress […]

Nuclear security summit will be held in Washington in April – Lavrov

By Interfax

From Interfax: A nuclear security summit will be held in Washington in April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference after talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In the area of nonproliferation, “Russia and the United States agreed to work on several tracks, including preparing a review conference of the […]

Estonia urges NATO to hold land-based drills in the Baltic

By RIA Novosti

From RIA Novosti: NATO should hold large-scale exercises of its Ground Forces in the Baltic region in response to recent military drills carried out by Russia and Belarus near the alliance’s borders, the Estonian president said Monday… “The protection of the airspace over the Baltic region is a visible and necessary measure, but it would […]

New Seminar on Strategic Concept

NATO has announced that the “discussion on the new Strategic Concept of NATO is entering a more intensive phase. On 16th October, 2009 a high level seminar addressing fundamental security tasks of the Alliance will take place in Luxembourg.” The seminar will be led by Madeleine Albright and hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs […]