Contents tagged with NATO

  • Prime Minister of Moldova: NATO office in Chisinau will begin operations in March

    The Prime Minister of Moldova, Pavel Filip, stated that the NATO office in Chișinău will start operating in March.

    "We have developed a new draft national defense strategy and presented it to the public. In March, a NATO Liaison office will start operating in Chișinău. This will allow for the necessary dialogue and cooperation for the modernization of our national army to begin,” Filip stressed at a press conference on Friday dedicated to the anniversary of his administration.

    As was reported, …

  • The Verkhovna Rada approved participation of NATO soldiers in exercises in Ukraine

    On Thursday, 19 January, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the holding of exercises in 2017 with the participation of NATO armed forces in the country. 236 of 329 MP’s present at the meeting voted in favor of the proposed law approving the decision of Petro Poroshenko. The remaining members did not vote, as indicated on the Rada’s website.

    According to the addendums to the proposed legislation on the website of the Ukrainian parliament, the proposal for the international training …

  • Polish Foreign Minister: It will be hard for EU countries to protect themselves against Russia without U.S. assistance

    The Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Witold Waszczykowski, stated at the World Economic Forum in Davos that Europe will have to persuade the United States, led by Donald Trump, to remain committed to its allies. Otherwise, it will be hard for European countries to protect themselves against Russia without Washington’s assistance.

    “We need to persuade the United States to stay with us because Europe will not be able to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine without America on its side. We …

  • NATO battalion will arrive in Latvia by June

    A NATO Battalion headed by Canada with more than 1000 servicemen will arrive in Latvia by the end of June.

    This was stated by the Commander of the Joint Headquarters of the Latvian National Armed Forces, Leonids Kalnins, as reported by the Delfi news website.

    “Before June, smaller NATO units will arrive in Latvia, which will prepare for the arrival of the battalion. By June, the complete battalion will arrive in Latvia,” Kalnins said.

    According to him, it is expected that the battalion will …

  • The Kremlin said that the deployment of U.S. tanks Poland poses a threat to Russia

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia considers the deployment of U.S. tanks and heavy armored vehicles to Poland a threat to its interests and security, Interfax reported.

    “We consider this move a threat to all of us. These actions pose a threat to our interests and security. Moreover, a third country is beefing up its military presence along our European borders,” Peskov said. He also noted that the United States is not even a European country. According to the Press Secretary, …

  • First US tanks arrive in Poland

    According to the TVN24.pl. news website, the first batch of tanks from the United States arrived in Poland as part of the effort to strengthen NATO's eastern flank.

    "The US military posted a photo of the unloading of the first M1 Abrams tank on Polish soil. This is the first tank detachment, redeployed by NATO to the East, but not the first such vehicle in Poland," TVN24.pl. news noted.

    The photograph was posted by the 16th Sustainment Brigade that provides logistics support in the EU. It has …

  • Turkey may take the Incirlik Air Base from the USA

    Ankara is questioning the presence of a coalition of forces, led by the United States, at the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, as indicated by the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, Veysi Kaynak, Reuters reports.

    The question of the use of the military base by the U.S.-led coalition and NATO forces is on the agenda of the Turkish government as Ankara is disappointed with the lack of support for its operations in Syria.

    Turkey began operations in Syria in August in order to move the ISIL militants …

  • Media report that a NATO aircraft flew extremely close to a Russian airliner near the Kuril Islands

    A military aircraft, presumably from a NATO country, approached a Russian passenger airliner which was flying from Sakhalin to the Kuril Islands. This was reported to Interfax by a source in law enforcement agencies.

    "The night before last, the Russian Bombardier airliner departed from Sakhalin and, having ascended about six thousand meters, headed for the Kurils. However, the dispatchers detected an unidentified aircraft approaching the liner at the same altitude, which did not respond to …

  • Dutch fighters began patrolling the skies over the Baltic as part of NATO mission

    As of the 5th of January, F-16 fighter Falcons from the Netherlands Air Force began patrolling the air space of the NATO member Baltic States, as reported on the website of the Defense Ministry of Lithuania.

    As reported in the statement, four aircraft from the air forces of the Netherlands, based at the airbase in Šiauliai, will replace French aircraft which patrolled the skies over the Baltic during the last four months. It is also reported that it is the third rotation of aircraft of the …

  • NATO fighters made 110 flights from the Baltic states to escort Russian Air Force aircraft in 2016

    Last year, NATO fighter jets stationed in Baltic countries scrambled 110 times to escort Russian military aircraft flying near the borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as reported by postimees.ee, citing information from the Ministry of Defence of Lithuania. The activity of Russian aircraft still remains higher than before 2014.

    According to data provided by the Ministry of Defense to the Baltic News Service, in 2013 NATO fighters scrambled 47 times, in 2014, 140 times, in 2015, about 160 …