Contents tagged with NATO

  • Prime Minister Vucic: Serbia will never be a member of NATO

    During a mourning ceremony on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the start of the bombing of the territory of Yugoslavia by NATO aircraft, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić stated that his country will never be a member of NATO, as reported by RTS news agency. According to Vučić, 18 years ago NATO launched "one of the most shameful aggressions in the history of mankind." The Prime Minister noted that Serbia would never get over what it experienced in 1999.

    Vučić stressed during …

  • Media: NATO will demand explanations from Russia about Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad

    NATO is trying to maintain contacts with Russia and plans to hold a joint meeting at the end of March, at which it will speak of its concerns regarding the build-up of Russian missiles in Kaliningrad, as reported by Spiegel, citing its sources.

    "NATO wants Moscow to explain the deployment of medium-range Iskander missiles on the eastern border of the Alliance," the publication reads.

    According to Spiegel, the parties agreed to hold a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at the headquarters of …

  • Kremlin: Turkey's membership in NATO would not prevent delivery of S-400

    Russia does not see any obstacles to the possible supply of S-400 air defense missile systems to Turkey with regard to its membership in NATO, said Vladimir Kozhin, an Aide to the President of Russia, on Thursday during a broadcast of the “Rossiya-24” television channel.

    "There are already negotiations with Turkey on the delivery of the S-400, and they are very interested. Yes, Turkey is a member of NATO, but I will say right away that we are not afraid (to deliver the S-400 to Ankara). Before …

  • Warehouses with ammunition were blown up in Ukraine - Kyiv suspects subversion and asks for NATO assistance

    During the night of March 23 in a military depot in the city of Balakliia, located 95 km from the city of Kharkiv, a fire occurred which caused the detonation of ammunition. The warehouse area is 680 hectares. Ammunition was delivered from the depot to the war zone in the east of Ukraine. There are no casualties among the military and civilian population, but a 54-year-old woman received shrapnel wounds.

    The fire occurred at several sites where artillery shells of 125 and 152 mm caliber were …

  • Ukraine asks US to make it a major non-NATO ally

    The Verkhovna Rada adopted an appeal to the US Congress with a plea to conclude a defense agreement with Ukraine and grant Ukraine the status of Major non-NATO ally.

    232 deputies voted for the adoption of the draft resolution.

    "In accordance with the spirit and letter of the Budapest Memorandum, as well as in developing a strategic partnership between our states, we are asking the United States to consider concluding a defense agreement with Ukraine and granting Ukraine the status of Major …

  • Lukashenko said NATO observers will be allowed to attend joint Russian-Belarusian exercises

    The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko said that the joint Belarusian-Russian exercise "Zapad-2017" will have purely defensive objectives so the representatives of NATO should be allowed to observe them. BelTA reports that he made the statement during consideration of the report on organizing joint strategic exercises between the Armed Forces of Belarus and Russia.

    "I demand cooperation from all of you so that this event on our country’s territory remains transparent. All activities …

  • Kosovo forms army despite NATO’s protests

    In spite of the sharp objections of NATO, the EU and the US, the Kosovo authorities are not backing down from their intention to create their own army. As reported by the Zeri newspaper published in Pristina on Saturday March 18, 51 million euros are to be allocated to the creation of the army.

    According to the publication, this amount will grow annually by 5 million euros.

    According to the plan, the army will consist of 8 000 military personnel, 3 000 of whom will be reservists, the …

  • US battalion was deployed to Lithuania on a permanent basis

    The presence of American troops in Lithuania is virtually permanent, said Curtis Scaparrotti, Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO.

    “We have forces here here 365 days a year. I want some flexibility on that, so it may not be [permanent deployment] but it will be nearly that if not that because of the forces we have,” Scaparrotti told reporters on Thursday.

    He noted that the rotation of the US battalion in Lithuania would take place in June and July, and the division would take part in the “ …

  • NATO does not recognize elections in Abkhazia

    The NATO bloc does not recognize the elections held in the occupied Georgian region of Abkhazia.

    This was announced by the NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai, reports Ukrinform.

    "NATO does not recognize the elections held in Georgia's Abkhazia region on March 12. These elections do not contribute to resolving the situation in Georgia," the Secretary General's Special Representative emphasized.

    The Alliance also once again …

  • Russia refuses to inform NATO about upcoming military exercises

    Russia is not yet prepared to brief NATO on the upcoming military exercises, said Andrey Kelin, Director of the Department of European Cooperation of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an Interfax interview on Monday.

    “We have not yet moved forward in establishing our relations to the extent that we can take steps such as the prospective explanation of such situations,” Kelin said, commenting on the words of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who expressed the hope on Monday …