Daily Archives: November 24, 2014

NATO Secretary General speech at 60th Plenary Session of NATO Parliamentary Assembly, 24 NOV 2014
Keynote address by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the 60th Plenary Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in The Hague, 24 November 2014.

By: NATO

Originally posted here:
NATO Secretary General speech at 60th Plenary Session of NATO Parliamentary Assembly, 24 NOV 2014 - Video

Published November 24, 2014

KABUL, Afghanistan NATO says that two of its service members have been killed in an attack in eastern Afghanistan.

Following protocol, it did not confirm their nationalities. A NATO spokeswoman says the attack happened just before 9 a.m. Monday.

A spokesman for Kabul's police chief, Hashmat Stanekzai, says that a bomb attached to a bicycle detonated near a foreign military convoy in the eastern part of the capital Kabul.

He says one Afghan civilian was wounded.

Monday's deaths bring the total for this month of foreign service members killed in Afghanistan to three. The total number killed this year is 63, 46 of them Americans.

Military convoys and foreign compounds in Kabul have been specifically targeted in recent weeks by insurgent groups waging war against the Afghan government.

Originally posted here:
NATO says 2 international service members killed in attack in eastern Afghanistan

Bombings across Afghanistan killed two NATO troops and six civilians Monday, authorities said, as the death toll in the country's deadliest insurgent attack this year rose to at least 50.

The attacks, including Sunday's mass killing by a suicide bomber at a volleyball tournament, come amid a renewed Taliban offensive as foreign troops begin to withdraw from the country.

In a statement, NATO said the troops had been killed by an "enemy attack in eastern Afghanistan." It did not identify the nationalities of dead, as the coalition waits for their home countries to make the announcement.

A spokesman for Kabul's police chief, Hashmat Stanekzai, said the troops were killed when a bomb attached to a bicycle exploded near a foreign military convoy in the eastern part of the capital Monday morning. He said the blast wounded one Afghan civilian.

A total of 63 NATO troops have been killed this year, 46 of them Americans.

Another bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded later Monday in a crowded market in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province, killing six people and wounding at least five, police spokesman Sarwar Hussaini said.

No group claimed responsibility for either attack Monday. Insurgents have stepped up their assaults against Afghan security forces in a bid to undermine the Western-backed Kabul government of President Ashraf Ghani.

The insurgents' deadliest attack this year, the volleyball tournament bombing Sunday in Paktika province bordering Pakistan, killed at least 50 people, said Mokhlis Afghan, a spokesman for the provincial governor. He said authorities were still trying to determine an accurate death toll Monday.

The suicide bomber detonated explosives as he mingled with the large crowd there, causing the many casualties. Interior Ministry spokesman Seddiq Sediqqi said the dead included 10 members of a local police force, including a police commander.

Abdullah Abdullah, the country's chief executive, visited a hospital in Paktika province Monday to see the wounded. He said locals believed the Taliban carried out the attack as they opposed the insurgents.

Originally posted here:
Afghan Bombings Kill 2 NATO Troops, 6 Civilians

Ukraine will decide whether to join NATO in a referendum at the end of this decade once it moves from empty declarations and completes real policy changes needed for membership, President Petro Poroshenko said.

We have worked out an intense plan for the next six years, so that the country meets the criteria to join the EU and to join NATO, Poroshenko said in Kiev today. And only then the Ukrainian people will decide on joining or not joining, in a referendum.

Ukraines government said Sept. 26 that it seeks to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the short term. Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized the U.S. and European Union countries for encroaching into former communist Europe, saying they have violated agreements signed at the end of the Cold War and pose a threat to his countrys national security.

More than 4,300 people have been killed during the conflict and much of the local infrastructure has been laid to waste in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine along the Russian border. The EU and the U.S. accuse Russia of not abiding by a Sept. 5 truce signed in Minsk, Belarus. Ukraine says Russian troops and vehicles continue to cross the frontier. Russia denies its fomenting the war.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Russia to pull back its forces from eastern Ukraine and respect the wobbly truce. He also said that the military alliance would stick by a 2008 decision to let Ukraine join if it eventually meets the criteria and decides to do so, even if membership isnt being discussed now.

The open door is still open, Stoltenberg said.

The conflict has intensified since rebels held elections Nov. 2. Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 24 were wounded by separatists over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters today. In Donetsk, 12 citizens were wounded by shelling over the weekend, the city council said on its website.

We are calling on Russia to pull back its forces from eastern Ukraine and to respect the Minsk agreements, and to stop fueling the conflict by supporting the separatists and use all its influence on the separatists to make sure they are respecting the cease-fire, Stoltenberg told lawmakers from NATO countries in The Hague today. We are calling on Russia to stop violating international law and to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine.

Germanys foreign minister expressed concerns that Russia is seeking to split up Ukraine by supporting separatists in the east as Putin defended his stance in the conflict.

Im taking Russia at its word that it doesnt want to destroy the unity of Ukraine, Der Spiegel magazine cited the German minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as saying in an interview. The reality, however, is speaking a different language.

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Ukrainians to Decide on NATO Membership in Referendum

Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO requested the member countries to stop the cuts and to increase investment in defence as peaceful times has changed.

Speaking to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Hague at the 60th plenary session, he said defence cannot take an excessive share of the austerity burden and all allies should shoulder their fair share in terms of spending, capabilities and contributing to its operations.

He noted that when NATO cuts defence spending, other countries have increased it rapidly. He pointed out the example of Russia which escalated its defence spending by 50 percent in last five years. Meanwhile, NATO has reduced its spending by 20 percent.

Stoltenberg stressed that we are not living in peaceful times and the military needs long term investment and political support. The Secretary General said, at the Wales Summit, it was agreed to strengthen collective defence to deal threats. The summit envisaged 'Spearhead Force,' a high readiness force able to react quickly with its command and control presence in the Eastern part of the alliance. He said, to deliver the capabilities, the alliance needs to spend better.

He pointed out that though the gross domestic product of the US and the Europe is almost the same, US spends more than twice on defence than all the other allies combined.

He asked for step by step increase in defence spending and to show progress by the Warsaw Summit in 2016. Further he said,there should be improvement in ballistic missile defence, training and exercise, and fully equipping land forces.

The Secretary General said with no imminent territorial threat after the Cold War, NATO has reduced its command structure to less than 9000 from 22,000. Tanks were reduced to 7,000 from 33,000. The alliance have postponed new investments, reduced exercises and cut back on the maintenance of equipment. But now as "the stakes are high and the threats are real," he demanded to redouble efforts to resource the alliance.

by RTT Staff Writer

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