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NATO Nations Send Weapons to Ukraine: Defense Minister Heletey says NATO weapons en route to Ukraine – Video

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NATO Nations Send Weapons to Ukraine: Defense Minister Heletey says NATO weapons en route to Ukraine
Ukrainian Defense Minister Valery Heletey has said that NATO weapons are en route to Ukraine after agreements about their delivery were reached at the NATO summit in Wales earlier in the month.Offi...

By: UKRAINE TODAY

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NATO Nations Send Weapons to Ukraine: Defense Minister Heletey says NATO weapons en route to Ukraine - Video

After the Summit: General Philip M. Breedlove on NATO’S Path Forward – Video

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After the Summit: General Philip M. Breedlove on NATO #39;S Path Forward
Please join the Atlantic Council #39;s Commanders Series on September 15th, 2014 at 11a.m. for a conversation with General Philip Breedlove, Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Commander, US European...

By: AtlanticCouncil

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After the Summit: General Philip M. Breedlove on NATO'S Path Forward - Video

Member states of NATO – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an international alliance that consists of 28 member states from North America and Europe. It was established at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. Article Five of the treaty states that if an armed attack occurs against one of the member states, it should be considered an attack against all members, and other members shall assist the attacked member, with armed forces if necessary.[1]

Of the 28 member countries, two are located in North America (Canada and the United States) and 25 are European countries while Turkey is in Eurasia. All members have militaries, although Iceland does not have a typical army (it does, however, have a military coast guard and a small unit of soldiers for NATO operations). Three of NATO's members are nuclear weapons states: France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. NATO has 12 original founding member nation states and from 18 February 1952 to 1 April 2009 it added 16 more member nations.

NATO has added new members six times since its founding in 1949, and since 2009 NATO has had 28 members. Twelve countries were part of the founding of NATO: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1952, Greece and Turkey became members of the Alliance. In 1990, with the reunification of Germany, NATO grew to include the former country of East Germany. Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbors were set up, including the Partnership for Peace, the Mediterranean Dialogue initiative and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. In 1997, three former Warsaw Pact countries, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland, were invited to join NATO. After this fourth enlargement in 1999, the Vilnius group of The Baltics and seven East European countries formed in May 2000 to cooperate and lobby for further NATO membership. Seven of these countries joined in the fifth enlargement in 2004. Albania and Croatia joined in the sixth enlargement in 2009.

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Member states of NATO - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NATO secretary general: West facing threats from Russia, Islamic State extremists

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Published September 15, 2014

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaks with the Associated Press during an interview at the Bibliotheque Solvay in Brussels on Monday, Sept. 15, 2014. In a farewell speech as NATO's top civilian official, Rasmussen said the alliance finds itself on the front lines of a geopolitical division between "tolerance and fanaticism," and "democracy and totalitarianism." Rasmussen's five-year term as NATO secretary general comes to a close at the end of the month. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)(The Associated Press)

BRUSSELS NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen says members of the U.S.-led alliance must stand shoulder to shoulder to confront "virulent, violent and anti-Western threats" from both Russia and the so-called Islamic State extremist organization.

In a farewell speech as NATO's top civilian official, Rasmussen said Monday the alliance finds itself on the front lines of a geopolitical division between "tolerance and fanaticism," and "democracy and totalitarianism."

"We must stand strong as a force for freedom," said Rasmussen. He said NATO and its member nations must face the fact that the new security challenges it faces could last for years.

Rasmussen's five-year term as NATO secretary general comes to a close at the end of the month. He spoke at a Brussels gathering of the Carnegie Europe think tank.

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NATO secretary general: West facing threats from Russia, Islamic State extremists

Putin Blames West for Ukraine War: Russian leader says conflict designed to boost NATO – Video

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Putin Blames West for Ukraine War: Russian leader says conflict designed to boost NATO
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the West has engineered the crisis in Ukraine so that it can strengthen NATO. Putin added that Russia has warned re...

By: UKRAINE TODAY

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Putin Blames West for Ukraine War: Russian leader says conflict designed to boost NATO - Video

President Putin accuses West of creating Ukraine crisis to revive NATO – Video

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President Putin accuses West of creating Ukraine crisis to revive NATO
The Russian president has accused Western counties of trying to revive NATO by creating a crisis in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin says Moscow has no intention of launching a new arms race, but will...

By: PressTV News Videos

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President Putin accuses West of creating Ukraine crisis to revive NATO - Video

NATO Outpost Reinvigorated by Russian Threat: Provincial Polish base enjoying new lease of life – Video

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NATO Outpost Reinvigorated by Russian Threat: Provincial Polish base enjoying new lease of life
NATO has decided to expand its outpost at Szczecin in western Poland in light of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski sa...

By: UKRAINE TODAY

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NATO Outpost Reinvigorated by Russian Threat: Provincial Polish base enjoying new lease of life - Video

NATO: Russia has 1,000 troops in Ukraine, 20,000 more along border

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Russia still has about 1,000 troops inside eastern Ukraine, a NATO military officer said Thursday, a week after Ukraine's government and pro-Russian rebels agreed to a ceasefire aimed at ending months of conflict.

NATO also sees 20,000 more Russian troops aligned along the border, the NATO officer told CNN. He was not named according to standard practice in the organization.

NATO believes that these numbers amount to a large and effective military force, the officer said. In addition to the troop numbers, NATO continues to see sophisticated Russian military equipment in Ukraine.

NATO remains concerned and urges Russia to engage with the international community and Ukraine to find a political solution to the crisis, the officer said.

Moscow has consistently denied allegations by Kiev and the West that Russia has troops in Ukraine, and that it has armed and supported the rebels.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said some 70% of the Russian troops believed to have been in Ukraine had withdrawn back across the border, according to the national news agency Ukrinform.

Information released by Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council on Thursday indicated that the rebel forces control a strip of eastern Ukraine running from the city of Luhansk down to the Sea of Azov.

'Very fragile' ceasefire

The truce was signed Friday after talks in Minsk, Belarus, between representatives of Ukraine, the rebels and Russia.

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NATO: Russia has 1,000 troops in Ukraine, 20,000 more along border

Turkey Seeks Behind-Scene Role in NATO Coalition

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Turkey is the big Muslim power that sits atop raging conflicts in Iraq and Syria, so it might be expected to take a leading role in the NATO coalition announced this month to take on the Islamic State group.

Instead it has told allies that it will stay quietly behind the scenes, keeping its soldiers out of combat operations and even declining to allow NATO to use its bases or territories to launch air attacks.

The reticence has roots in two dilemmas: the Islamic State group holds dozens of Turkish hostages, including diplomats, and Turkey is wary of boosting its rebellious Kurdish minority in the battle against Islamic State group enemies in Iraq.

Turkey's position is complicated by its eagerness to uproot the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad, which led to tolerance of anti-Assad Islamist fighters taking refuge on its side of the Syrian border and may have given the Islamic State group some breathing room in Turkey. More recently, it has been forced to confront the threat that the group posed.

Western concerns that Turkey was tacitly tolerating the Islamic State group have been allayed by Turkey's strong statements of condemnation of the group and steps to rein it in, including kicking out suspected Islamic State group sympathizers.

But while expressing public support for Turkey, NATO allies are quietly saying they would like more action from their ally.

They would chiefly like to see Turkey tighten its border controls, stem the flow of fighters transiting Turkey from Western Countries and the Middle East, and crack down on oil smuggling from Syria that finances the Islamic State group. They could also benefit from closer intelligence cooperation and possibly the use of Incirlik Airbase in southern Turkey as a base from which to launch strikes against the group.

Western governments have been alarmed by a trend of the Islamic State group managing to smuggle Iraqi and Syrian oil across its borders. Turkey has cracked down, but analysts say that Turkey has simply not been able to police the smuggling across more than 750 miles of border with Iraq and Syria.

Both U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel were in Ankara last week on successive trips to press Turkey on its role, meeting with officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But they failed to win pledges for support of combat operations at least publicly. Both expressed understanding for the delicate position Turkey was in.

Turkey also declined to sign a U.S. brokered statement by Middle Eastern countries last week repudiating the Islamic State group and pledging to fight it.

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Turkey Seeks Behind-Scene Role in NATO Coalition

Ukraine NATO Membership Bid: Former Ukrainian PM Tymoshenko initiates NATO membership vote – Video

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Ukraine NATO Membership Bid: Former Ukrainian PM Tymoshenko initiates NATO membership vote
Ukraine #39;s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has initiated the process of holding a referendum in the country on NATO membership. Russia has called Ukrai...

By: UKRAINE TODAY

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Ukraine NATO Membership Bid: Former Ukrainian PM Tymoshenko initiates NATO membership vote - Video


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