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NATO Secretary General with President of the Slovak Republic, 3 MAR 2015 – Video

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NATO Secretary General with President of the Slovak Republic, 3 MAR 2015
Joint press point with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the President of the Slovak Republic, Andrej Kiska, 3 March 2015, Brussels, Belgium. SUBSCRIBE to NATO YouTube http://bit.ly/NA ...

By: NATO

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NATO Secretary General with President of the Slovak Republic, 3 MAR 2015 - Video

Slovakia-NATO Meeting: War in Ukraine and Russian role in the conflict tops the agenda – Video

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Slovakia-NATO Meeting: War in Ukraine and Russian role in the conflict tops the agenda
Slovakian President Andrej Kiska has met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels, Belgium. Top of the agenda was the war in Ukraine and the role of Russia in the conflict....

By: UKRAINE TODAY

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Slovakia-NATO Meeting: War in Ukraine and Russian role in the conflict tops the agenda - Video

Vladimir Putin wants to destroy Nato, says US commander in Europe Ben Hodges

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He warned that Mr Putin could try to destabilise a Nato member by using a rebel militia as in eastern Ukraine, or other forms of ambiguous warfare.

In the absence of an overt Russian attack, some Nato members could be reluctant to invoke Article 5 of the Washington treaty, under which an attack on one member is an attack on all.

Once Article 5 is gone, our alliance is over, Gen Hodges said.

He called for American tanks to be positioned in countries along Natos eastern flank, as a deterrent to Mr Putin.

Just months after moving its last tanks out of Europe, the US has decided to send some 220 Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles back in response to the Ukraine crisis.

Gen Hodges said he had proposed positioning some of the tanks in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania and Bulgaria.

And the US has already agreed to send troops to Poland and the three Baltic states.

Gen Hodges called for Nato countries to maintain defence spending in the face of the Ukraine crisis.

The chief of staff of the US army, Gen Raymond Odierno, said he was very concerned earlier this week after David Cameron refused to commit to maintaining defence spending at Natos agreed target of 2 per cent of GDP.

But Gen Hodges said he was sure the UK would continue to meet the 2 per cent target.

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Vladimir Putin wants to destroy Nato, says US commander in Europe Ben Hodges

Meet NATOs man in Moscow

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KYIV, Ukraine Considering the situation, there was little Robert Pszczel could do to prevent the verbal assault.

For a while, he stood his ground in the state television studio and appealed to Russian viewers sense of reason.

Then a couple of guests as well as the host pounced.

Youre a Pole! one guest cried out lividly. Youre a Russophobe from the outset already.

Shouldering that sort of abuse has become more or less part of Pszczels job these days.

As director of the NATO Information Office in Moscow, hes the chief spokesman of the military alliance there. Amid the worst standoff between Russia and the West since the Cold War, stumping for NATO isnt the easiest of gigs.

Thanks to the crisis in Ukraine, which Russias powerful state media machine has exploited to shore up domestic support for the Kremlin, a wave of anti-Western hysteria has swept over Russia.

Criticizing the Russian government has had deadly consequences. Witness last weekends apparent political assassination of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader painted as an enemy for allegedly siding with the West against Russia.

Its an environment that leaves little room for open discussion.

Russia is a great country, and a great country needs a great debate, Pszczel said in a telephone interview from Moscow. But where is it?

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Meet NATOs man in Moscow

NATO Deploys Ships to Black Sea for Training with Bulgarian Navy

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NATO ships, assigned to Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG2), arrived in the Black Sea on Wednesday to operate and train with ships from the Bulgarian, Romanian and Turkish navies.

The training will comprise simulated anti-air and anti-submarine warfare exercises, simulated small boat attacks and basic ship handling maneuvres, NATO Maritime Command's press service reports.

SNMG2 is led by Rear Adm. Brad Williamson and is composed of flagship USS Vicksburg, HMCS Fredericton, TCG Turgutreis, FGS Spessart, ITS Aliseo, and ROS Regina Maria.

The NATO maritime force has considerable sea-control, anti-submarine and anti-air warfare capacities.

The deployment is in full compliance with international conventions and at the invitation of the Bulgarian, Romanian and Turkish governments.

Williamson said that he was looking forward to enhance interoperability with the navies of the Black Sea Allies.

This scheduled visit, is in support of training and assurance of Black Sea Allies, which would serve as preparation for any mission NATO might be required to undertake.

SNMG2 will return to the Mediterranean Sea later in March, where it will resume patrols contributing to maritime situational awareness in the region.

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NATO Deploys Ships to Black Sea for Training with Bulgarian Navy

Estonia's pro-NATO Reform party wins vote

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TALLINN: Estonia's governing pro-NATO Reform party came top in parliamentary elections on Sunday (Mar 1), fought amid concerns over a militarily resurgent Russia, but analysts warned that forging a coalition would be challenging.

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves is expected to ask Reform chief, outgoing Prime Minister Taavi Roivas, to build a coalition on the basis of the 30 seats his party won in the 101-member parliament.

The centrist Reform party lost three seats, according to the official results. Meanwhile the opposition pro-Kremlin Centre party was up one seat to 27 and the outgoing Social Democrat junior coalition partners down four to 15.

"Reform will be able to form a government ... (but) coalition talks might be complicated," leading Estonian political commentator Ahto Lobjakas told AFP, noting increased volatility with six parties now in parliament, up from the previous four.

The parliamentary newcomers are a free-market liberal party and an anti-immigration conservative party, who secured 15 seats between them.

"In terms of Estonia's pro-Western orientation, commitment to EU, NATO, all this will remain and possibly become more pronounced," he added, describing the entry of the two newcomers as a swing to the right.

Moscow's annexation of Crimea last year and its meddling in eastern Ukraine have galvanised the European Union, including eurozone member Estonia where a quarter of the 1.3 million population are ethnic Russian.

Military manoeuvres by Moscow on Estonia's border just days ahead of the vote further stoked deep concerns in Europe that the Kremlin could attempt to destabilise countries that were in its orbit during Soviet times.

NATO is countering the moves by boosting defences on Europe's eastern flank with a spearhead force of 5,000 troops and command centres in six formerly communist members of the alliance, including one in Estonia.

"If they (the Russians) come in here, Estonia can't do anything ... I'm not sure NATO will help us out," Pyotr Sirotkin, a 25-year-old student at Tallinn University, told AFP as he cast his ballot in the capital.

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Estonia's pro-NATO Reform party wins vote

NATO spending down despite Russia tensions: think-tank

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Thursday, 26 February 2015 18:49

BRUSSELS: Many NATO member countries are spending less on defence despite promises to boost their budgets in the face of growing tensions with Russia, a think-tank said Thursday.

The European Leadership Network looked at figures for 2015 from 14 NATO members to see if they meet pledges made at a summit of the US-led military alliance last September.

All 28 NATO nations vowed to reverse a steady decline in defence spending and increase expenditure levels to two percent of annual economic output within 10 years.

"Despite concerns over Russian aggression in Ukraine and political commitments made at the NATO Wales Summit in September 2014... many are failing to live up to the commitments made," the think-tank said.

The tiny Baltic state of Estonia was the only country expected to spend 2.0 percent of gross domestic product on defence this year, London-based ELN said.

Six countries -- Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, the Netherlands and Romania -- are due to increase military expenditure but will not meet the target, while France is on course for a flat defence budget between 2014 and 2015.

Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria are all set to cut defence spending, the think-tank said.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has repeatedly urged cash-strapped member nations to boost funding to meet increases in defence spending by Russia.

Russia's alleged involvement in Ukraine -- which the Kremlin has denied -- has sparked fears in NATO that Moscow could target the alliance's eastern European members.

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NATO spending down despite Russia tensions: think-tank

NATO's 'Top Guns' on Notice Amid Fears of Putin Push

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AMARI AIR BASE, Estonia NATO's newest members are nervous.

Troops are being trained up and reinforced. A new "spearhead force" is in the works. Fighter jets are scrambling. Military maneuvering is ramping up amid mounting concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin will broaden his gaze beyond Crimea and Ukraine to the Baltic nations.

Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president of the European Commission, warned that Russia was redrawing the map of Europe by force. Britain's Defense Secretary Michael Fallon last week said there was a "real and present danger" Russia's president would seek to destabilize Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all small NATO members with enough legitimate issues of disenfranchisement among their Russian minorities to make them prime potential targets for any Putin push.

Lithuania moved to reintroduce the military draft this week, days after its foreign minister warned Russia was "behaving aggressively" and posed a threat to countries beyond Ukraine.

NATO insists that it is ready to confront any threat. But with its new members airing more and more anxiety over aggressive moves from Moscow, the alliance is beefing up its deterrent capabilities. Its "Top Guns" have been put on notice, part of the alliance's around-the-clock Baltic Air Policing mission.

"They're normally quite heavily armed all sorts of missiles and so on"

The importance of attention to the aerial front line has been underscored by a dramatic uptick in Russian incursions into European airspace though analysts say the moves are mostly for intimidation.

"It's essentially a way of saber rattling," said Justin Bronk, an analyst at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. "It's pointing out how quickly Russia can get inside NATO airspace in those countries with powerful military aircraft and it's also, of course, a way for Russia to test NATO readiness and response levels."

Italy's Ambassador to Lithuania, Stefano Taliani, called the Russian airspace violations "a kind of war game," telling NBC News that NATO pilots "know the rules."

Still, he warned that "in the Baltic states, we must be ready."

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NATO's 'Top Guns' on Notice Amid Fears of Putin Push

NATO commander: Ukraine crisis is 'getting worse every day' (+video)

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Washington The top U.S. military commander in Europe said on Wednesday the situation in Ukraine was "getting worse every day" as government forces struggled against Russian-backed rebels, but he declined to say whether he favored supplying defensive weapons to Kiev.

Air Force General Philip Breedlove, the NATO supreme allied commander, said the U.S. military had a deep relationship with Ukraine even before the current conflict and had a good sense of what military assets it needed, including intelligence, communications and jamming and counter-battery.

"I've prepared my advice and passed it up through my chain of command and that is now in the process of being considered," Breedlove told Pentagon reporters during a briefing. He did not offer details of his recommendations.

Breedlove spoke amid signs that a French- and German-brokered truce may be beginning to take hold. Rebels initially spurned the ceasefire, but Reuters journalists in eastern Ukraine saw artillery being moved away from the front in some areas on Wednesday.

Asked whether providing additional military assistance to Ukraine would prompt Russian President Vladimir Putin to "up the ante," Breedlove indicated there was no way to predict.

"Let's examine what Mr. Putin has done already: Well over a thousand combat vehicles, Russian combat forces, some of their most sophisticated air defense, battalions of artillery. I would say that Mr. Putin has already set the ... ante very high."

Breedlove said no one could predict with any accuracy what Putin's reaction would be to tougher Western sanctions on Russia or providing Ukraine with military assistance. As a result, he said it was important to make the best judgment possible and find a way forward.

"What is clear is that right now it is not getting better, it is getting worse every day," he said.

Asked whether the situation was likely to worsen even if the U.S. and Western allies did nothing further, Breedlove said that was already happening.

"We have seen a steady escalation," he said, noting that when Russian forces initially went into eastern Ukraine they tried to conceal their presence and create "ambiguity to confuse whether they were actually in there."

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NATO commander: Ukraine crisis is 'getting worse every day' (+video)


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