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Ukraine agrees to host NATO war games

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Military manoeuvres: A Russian soldier directs a tank onto a flat-bed truck near Simferopol. Photo: Reuters

Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday approved a series of joint military exercises with NATO countries that would put US troops in direct proximity to Russian forces in the annexed Crimea peninsula.

"This is a good opportunity to develop our armed forces," acting defence minister Mykhailo Koval told Verkhovna Rada lawmakers ahead of the 235-0 vote.

The decision came as NATO foreign ministers gathered in Brussels for a two-day meeting dominated by concern over the recent buildup of Russian forces near Crimea that US officials estimate had at one point reached about 40,000 troops.

NATO has sought to reinforce its eastern frontier after Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula and amid concerns about the Kremlin's emboldened foreign policy.

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Russia on Monday reported pulling back a battalion of about 500 to 700 soldiers from the border region in a move that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called "a small sign that the situation is becoming less tense".

Ukraine is not a NATO member and its new Western-backed leaders have vowed not to push for closer relations with the Brussels-based military alliance - a bloc that has been viewed with deep mistrust by Moscow since the Cold War.

But the former Soviet nation did form a "distinctive partnership" with the Alliance in 1997 and has been staging joint exercises with its state members ever since.

The exercises approved on Tuesday would see Ukraine conduct two sets of military exercises with the United States this summer - Rapid Trident and Sea Breeze - that have prompted disquiet in Russia in previous years.

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Ukraine agrees to host NATO war games

Danger in the skies as Russia, NATO play cat-and-mouse

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BRUSSELS - Recent close shaves between Russian fighters and civilian aircraft highlight the dangers of the cat-and-mouse game being played out between Moscow and the West in European skies amid the crisis in Ukraine, analysts say.

In the latest incident, Sweden said Friday that a Russian military jet nearly collided with a passenger plane south of Malmoe shortly after take-off from Copenhagen International Airport.

Both countries called in their Russian ambassadors to protest, only to be told that a huge increase in Russian military activity in recent months was "a response to NATO's activities and escalation in the region."

Russia later accused Swedish authorities of being under the influence after smoking too much cannabis.

But such incidents are no joke for European authorities, with memories still fresh from the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine by a missile that the West alleges was fired by pro-Russian separatists.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has begun an investigation into a series of near-misses with Russian military aircraft not using the transponders which identify them and tell other planes of their position.

This practice is particularly dangerous, analysts said.

Transponders turned off

"While Russia claims that its military aircraft remain in international airspace, to do so while turning off transponders and swooping close to other aerial platforms is very dangerous," Brooks Tigner, chief editor and policy analyst at Security Europe, told AFP.

"That is disruptive to accepted international air safety rules and a risky game for Russia to play," Tigner said.

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Danger in the skies as Russia, NATO play cat-and-mouse

NATO Secretary General – 10th Anniversary Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, 11 DEC 2014 – Video

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NATO Secretary General - 10th Anniversary Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, 11 DEC 2014
Keynote address by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the North Atlantic Council ICI seminar celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, Doha, Qatar,...

By: NATO

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NATO Secretary General - 10th Anniversary Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, 11 DEC 2014 - Video

NATO Secretary General – 10th Anniversary Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, Closing, 11 DEC 2014 – Video

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NATO Secretary General - 10th Anniversary Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, Closing, 11 DEC 2014
Closing remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the North Atlantic Council ICI seminar celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Istanbul Coope...

By: NATO

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NATO Secretary General - 10th Anniversary Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, Closing, 11 DEC 2014 - Video

Russia accuses NATO of aerial spying 'practically every day'

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Russia's air force commander on Tuesday accused the United States and its NATO allies of provoking confrontation over the Baltic Sea by sending spy planes near the Russian border "practically every day."

In apparent response to accusations from NATO military officials that a Russian jet flying a stealth mission nearly caused a collision with an SAS commercial jet last week, Russian Air Force commander Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev said at a news briefing in Moscow that the Western alliance has "massively" stepped up aerial surveillance of Russia's air defense capabilities.

"In 2014, the number of flights by reconnaissance aircraft of the United States and NATO countries over territories of the Baltic countries, the Baltic and Barents seas has increased considerably, Bondarev said, estimating that NATO typically conducts eight to 12 such flights a week.

"Strategic reconnaissance aircraft RC-135 of the U.S. Air Force perform flights practically every day," the Tass news agency quoted Bondarev as saying. He put the number of RC-135 flights in the vicinity of Russian borders at 140 so far this year, compared with 22 in 2013.

As relations between the former Cold War adversaries have plunged into a new phase of distrust over Kremlin aggression against Ukraine, Russian and NATO surveillance aircraft have taken to the skies in rival shows of force over the Baltic region, which was under Soviet domination for most of the previous century.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union at the advent of World War II, but have spun into the Western security orbit since breaking free of Moscow's control amid the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. All three former Soviet Baltic republics are now part of the 28-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as are Baltic Sea littoral states Poland and what was Communist East Germany during the Cold War era.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has loudly opposed the encroachment of NATO into Eastern Europe regions he considers to be Russia's traditional sphere of influence. His armed forces seized Ukraine's Crimea region in February after a pro-Europe rebellion in the former Soviet republic to Russia's southeast toppled Kremlin-allied President Viktor Yanukovich.

Putin is also accused by the new Ukrainian leadership and its Western allies of sending arms and fighters to bolster the separatist movement that has wrested key areas of eastern Ukraine from the Kiev government's control.

At his news briefing, Bondarev said NATO had also deployed AWACS -- airborne warning and control system -- aircraft on missions to survey areas in the Black Sea, Ukraine and western Russia. Those aircraft, as well as Swedish Gulfstream reconnaissance planes, German Orion P-3Cs, Danish Challengers and Portuguese Orions, have been collecting intelligence on Russian armed forces in the Kaliningrad exclave and in Baltic waters, the Russian Tass news agency said.

Bondarev's claims appeared to be in response to mounting accusations from NATO countries that Russian aerial operations are posing a threat to the safety of civilian aircraft.

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Russia accuses NATO of aerial spying 'practically every day'

NATO ends cooperation with Russia

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NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the Alliance suspends "all practical cooperation with Russia" in protest at its annexation of Crimea.

Brussels: NATO's foreign ministers ordered an end to civilian and military cooperation with Russia and told their generals and admirals to quickly figure out ways to better protect alliance members that feel threatened by Vladimir Putin's Kremlin.

The 28-member alliance, the keystone of US and European security since the end of World War II, was reacting to its most serious crisis in years: Russia's unilateral annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, which the US and its allies have condemned as an illegal land grab.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaks with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia (left) before a NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting at the NATO headquarters in Brussels. Photo: Reuters

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NATO ends cooperation with Russia

National Front leader wants government to leave NATO over CIA torture report – Video

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National Front leader wants government to leave NATO over CIA torture report
National Front Party leader Marine Le Pen says France should leave the military alliance if it #39;s outraged by the CIA tortures. Le Pen has previously criticized President Francois Hollande...

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National Front leader wants government to leave NATO over CIA torture report - Video

Former commander urges Nato to send arms to Ukraine …

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Admiral James Stavridis in 2009. Photograph: Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images

A former commander of Nato in Europe has called for the alliance to send arms and military advisers to Ukraine to help it fight Moscow-backed separatists.

James Stavridis said during a visit to London: I think we should provide significant military assistance to the Ukrainian military. I dont think we should limit ourselves to, non-lethal aid. I think we should provide ammunition, fuel, logistics. I think cyber-assistance would be very significant and helpful, as well as advice and potentially advisers.

I dont think there needs to be huge numbers of Nato troops on the ground. The Ukrainian military can resist whats happening, but they need some assistance in order to do that.

Ukraine announced on Friday that it would conscript 40,000 more soldiers next year and double its military budget, in an attempt to counter the separatist threat in the east.

The US and European states have offered only non-lethal assistance, despite Kievs appeals for weapons to help it reassert control over areas in eastern Ukraine currently under the sway of pro-Russia separatists. However, on Thursday the US Senate passed a bill authorising Barack Obama to provide military training and arms including anti-tank and anti-armour weapons.

Bob Corker, the senior Republican member of the Senate foreign relations committee, said: The hesitant US response to Russias continued invasion of Ukraine threatens to escalate this conflict even further. Unanimous support for our bill demonstrates a firm commitment to Ukrainian sovereignty and to making sure [Vladimir] Putin pays for his assault on freedom and security in Europe.

This month Nato established trust funds to help finance assistance to Ukraine in reforming its armed forces, but that too was limited to non-lethal help.

Stavridis, a retired US Navy admiral who was Nato supreme allied commander in Europe from 2009 to 2013, and is now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the US, also expressed concern about Putins recent rhetoric emphasising Russias nuclear arsenal.

In August Putin told a group of young supporters that Russia was one of the worlds leading nuclear powers, adding: Russias partners should understand its best not to mess with us.

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"NATO membership would improve quality of life"

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Source: Tanjug

BELGRADE -- Serbia's cooperation with NATO over the past ten years did much for the area of security sector reforms, as well as in increasing military interoperability.

This is what participants of a gathering dubbed "Belgrade NATO Week" have said, adding that Serbia's membership in the military alliance would also contribute to improving regional relations and bring a greater degree of democracy and the rule of law, as well as improve "the quality of life in our country."

According to U.S. embassy in Belgrade political counselor Cherrie Daniels, Serbia's official orientation towards the European Union and its path towards European integration have great significance when it comes to security sector reforms, and development of military interoperability between Serbia and its partners in the EU.

"As Serbia progress towards the EU, it will be very important to complete the process of the reform of the security sector and to establish sustainable and transparent institutions," said Daniels, adding that Serbia made much progress over the past ten years.

She said Serbia's priority was to implement the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), which would "raise to a higher level Serbia's relations with NATO."

"IPAP will identify ways in which NATO can help Serbia, and it will expand relations from the military to the political level, at the same time creating a framework for cooperation in other fields. This is an important aspect for Serbia because it will provide an opportunity for sustainable reform of the security sector, which is crucial in the process of Serbia's EU accession," said Daniels.

Increasing military interoperability of the Serbian Army is another benefit of EU integrations, explained Daniels, underlining that joint training of Serbian soldiers with EU partners and the harmonization of standards in the defense sector will allow the country to strengthen its national security, be ready to react in emergency situations, and effectively participate in peacekeeping missions and multinational operations.

Noting that Serbia is the only country in the region that does not want to become a member of NATO, executive director of the Atlantic Council of Serbia Milovan Milosevic said he believed that much more than military cooperation is gained through membership.

"NATO is not only a military force, it is a set of values that those countries stand for, like democracy or human rights protection. Also, NATO member states receive more foreign direct investments. In Lithuania, foreign direct investments increased by 167 percent in the first year after it became a member of NATO, while those in Bulgaria increased by 97 percent, "said Milosevic.

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"NATO membership would improve quality of life"

Ukraine considering new push for NATO membership, prime minister says

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Ukraines prime minister on Monday called for more NATO support to reform its military as the countrys crisis with Russia has given new life to a once abandoned effort to eventually join the U.S.-led alliance.

I do remember nine months ago when we said NATO membership is not yet on our radars, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said during a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels. I will tell you the screen of this radar has entirely changed.

The presence of Russian tanks, howitzers and soldiers in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces, has changed the security equation in the country, Yatsenyuk said. Russia has denied sending troops or weapons to the separatists.

However, Yatsenyuk acknowledged the path toward NATO membership for which the alliance sets a series of benchmarks that can take years to implement could be a long one.

We need to pass reforms and implement reforms that are needed to meet all standards and criteria that apply to all NATO states, he said. This is the roadmap and we will follow this roadmap.

Any decision on further NATO expansion also requires unanimous support of all 28 members. In the past, Germany and several other countries have expressed opposition to accepting new members from the former Soviet Union, which Russia still regards as part of its sphere of influence.

During Yatsenyuks talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister also requested additional support in reviewing and shaping Ukraines defense and national security strategy, Yatsenyuk said.

We need to modernize and overhaul [the] Ukrainian military.

Despite a shaky cease-fire, tensions between Russia and Ukraine and between Russia and the West continue to simmer. In the past week, officials in Poland and Sweden have both complained of a surge in Russian military activity near NATO airspace.

On Friday, Sweden claimed that Russian military intelligence aircraft nearly collided with a civilian aircraft in international air space, forcing the passenger plane to reroute during a flight south of Sweden. Russia denied those and other allegations of Russian planes repeatedly flying unannounced into international airspace with tracking sensors turned off a violation of international air traffic rules.

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Ukraine considering new push for NATO membership, prime minister says

Russian air force jets pose risk to civilian aviation in Baltic, says NATO

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A Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter in Baltic airspace. Photo: Reuters/RAF

Stockholm: NATO accused Russia of posing a danger to civil aviation in the Baltic region after Stockholm protested over a Russian air force jet it said had flown too close to an airliner and had turned off one of its location instruments.

Friday's incident off southern Sweden inflamed sensitivities over Russian air force flights in the Nordic region that have increased steeply this year, driven in part by tensions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis. Finland also expressed concern about "Dark Flights" with so-called transponder locators switched off.

"It is not only a question of increased...flights but it's the way they're conducting the flights. They are not filing their flight plans and they are not communicating with civilian air traffic control and they are not turning on their transponders," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference on Monday.

"That poses a risk to civilian air traffic. The important thing is that NATO stays vigilant and that we intercept the Russian flights."

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Russia denied its aircraft had posed any hazard to the airliner.

The Swedish military said the Russian jet had turned off its transponder - a communications device, alongside normal radar, that makes it easier for an airplane to be located, especially in congested air space.

While civilian flights must fly with their transponders on at all times, military flights are allowed to turn them off when flying in international air space as long as they show consideration to other flights.

A NATO spokesman said NATO aircraft always kept their transponders turned on when flying in European air space.

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Russian air force jets pose risk to civilian aviation in Baltic, says NATO

NATO Gen. Philip Breedlove Echoes Justin Trudeau On 'Root Causes' Of Radicalism

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The top commander of NATO and Justin Trudeau have something in common: They've both believe that the "root causes" of radicalism need to be understood.

"This is a long-term, not a short-term, fight," NATO's Gen. Philip Breedlove told CBC's "The House" of the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State.

"Until we have addressed the root causes of these kinds of issues, we can expect to have to deal with these kind of issues."

To address the causes, Breedlove said, the West must help bring health, security and jobs to vulnerable areas.

Breedlove's interview echoes comments made by Justin Trudeau in April 2013, shortly after the Boston Marathon bombings. He also drew attention to the "root causes," and his comments immediately became attack ad ammunition for the Harper government.

Trudeau, in an interview with the CBC's Peter Mansbridge, said that it is important to fully understand what drives people to terrorism.

"We have to look at the root causes," Trudeau said. "Now, we don't know now if it was terrorism or a single crazy or a domestic issue or a foreign issue. But there is no question that this happened because there is someone who feels completely excluded."

The Conservatives jumped on the Liberal leader's remarks, blasting him in an attack ad that asked "How can you make excuses for terrorists and keep Canadians safe? Justin Trudeau. He's in way over his head."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper also criticized Trudeau's comments.

"When you see this type of violent act, you do not sit around trying to rationalize it or make excuses for it or figure out its root causes," he said.

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NATO Gen. Philip Breedlove Echoes Justin Trudeau On 'Root Causes' Of Radicalism


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