NATO 1 Russia 0

[Howitzer]

NATO says implementing 'biggest' defence boost since Cold War

AFP
June 18, 2015, 8:00 am

Zagan (Poland) (AFP) - NATO head Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday the alliance was implementing its biggest defence reinforcement since the Cold War, as the region grapples with terrorism and an increasingly assertive Russia.

He spoke a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year.

"NATO is facing a new security environment, both caused by violence, turmoil, instability in the south -- ISIL in Iraq, Syria, North Africa -- but also caused by the behaviour of a more assertive Russia, which has used force to change borders, to annex Crimea and to destabilise eastern Ukraine," Stoltenberg told reporters, using another acronym to refer to the jihadist Islamic State group.

"And therefore NATO has to respond. We are responding, and we are doing so by implementing the biggest reinforcement of our collective defences since the end of the Cold War and the Spearhead force is a key element of this reinforcement, and it's great to see that it's functional, and that it's exercising here in Poland," he said.

He spoke in Zagan in western Poland while attending the first full exercise of NATO's new rapid reaction force, created to deter Russia from any action against nervous east European allies that were once ruled from Moscow.

Around 2,100 soldiers from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and the United States have been taking part in the NATO exercise since last week.

The drill is designed to test NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), established in the wake of the alliance's September 2014 summit in Wales, which focussed on reinforcing the alliance's eastern flank amid jitters over Russia.

Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea and its meddling in eastern Ukraine have triggered concern in ex-communist eastern and central European states that joined NATO after the Cold War.

Tension is particularly high in the Baltic states, which emerged from nearly five decades of Soviet occupation in the early 1990.

 

[zookeeper]

Europe -1
Russia 0
USA +1

 

[Tony Tan]

All of G7 are bankrupted and can not afford to keep even existing arms, actually under pressure to cut arms. Putin forced them to spend even more and be in painful debts, and still strategically and tactically suffer deep deep disadvantages. Regardless how much they borrow and arm they are unable to safe their ass from Putin. NO MATCH.

Borei Class new submarine one vessel can KO whole EU. One more KO whole USA. The balance are spares.

 

[canonfairy]

no action talk only

 

[Howitzer]

Ouch !

EU to extend Russia sanctions to January 2016

AFP
June 18, 2015, 3:39 am

Brussels (AFP) - EU member states agreed Wednesday to extend damaging economic sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis by another six months to the end of January 2016, officials said.

The agreement by ambassadors from the 28 European Union nations meeting in Brussels will be formalised by foreign ministers from the bloc when they meet next week, the officials said.

"EU foreign ministers will finalise the decision in Luxembourg on Monday," Poland's permanent representative to the EU said on Twitter, while several sources also confirmed the agreement.

The following day, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia are slated to hold talks in Paris, it was announced Wednesday. It is hoped those meetings may create renewed diplomatic momentum towards resolving the violence in east Ukraine, and address tensions between Russian and Western nations over the conflict and sanctions that have arisen from it.

The EU imposed its sanctions targeting Russia's banks, oil and defence sectors after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine in July 2014.

The United States has also imposed economic sanctions on Russia.

In March, EU leaders agreed in principle to roll the sanctions over by linking them directly to Russia's full implementation of a February ceasefire brokered by France and Germany in Minsk that runs to December this year.

"This is just putting into effect the March summit decision," one EU source told AFP.

"The idea is to extend them to end-January to give time to review progress on the Minsk accord before having to take a new decision."

With the legal text agreed by officials, foreign ministers will likely approve it Monday without discussion.

EU leaders meeting on Thursday and Friday in Brussels will then make the formal announcement, sources said.

- 'Nuclear sabre-rattling' -

The sanctions extension will keep relations between Russia and the West in the deep freeze, a year and a half after the crisis in Ukraine triggered the worst rift since the Cold War.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday accused Russia of "dangerous" nuclear sabre-rattling after President Vladimir Putin announced plans to deploy 40 new nuclear ballistic missiles.

Russia says the move is in response to the US-led NATO military alliance increasing its presence in east European states once ruled from Moscow.

Earlier this month the Group of Seven top industrialised nations -- which expelled Russia last year -- warned Moscow it would face increased sanctions for its "aggression" in Ukraine if Putin failed to mend his ways.

"We... stand ready to take further restrictive measures in order to increase the cost on Russia should its actions so require," G7 leaders said after a summit in Germany.

"We recall that the duration of sanctions should be clearly linked to Russia's complete implementation of the Minsk agreements and respect for Ukraine's sovereignty," they said.

The February Minsk accord was concluded after a September peace plan failed to halt the fighting, with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel driving the talks as pro-Russian rebels pushed back government forces.

The ceasefire has largely held but Kiev and the rebels swap charges daily over breaches, and observers have reported a sharp pick up in fighting in recent weeks.

The EU first imposed asset freezes and travel bans on leading rebel and Russian figures after Moscow's annexation of Crimea in March 2014, and has expanded the sanctions as the conflict spread into eastern Ukraine, claiming more than 6,400 lives.

The decision to impose full-blown economic sector sanctions was much more controversial and painful, with certain member states such as Italy and Germany having particularly important trade and political ties with Moscow.

The shooting down of flight MH17, however, made those bilateral considerations secondary to ensuring a strong collective reaction.

 

[steffychun]

NATO loses because Cameron doesnt want to spend money

 

[Howitzer]

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-electromagnetic-catapult-fighter-jet-2015-6#ooid=RsMzZsdTo2NL9KNJSr91UdTwvzYf1HGf

 

[Kuailan]

NATO loses because Cameron doesnt want to spend money

NATO No Action Talk Only

 

[Pootin]

NATO loses because Cameron doesnt want to spend money

No action talk only

 

[steffychun]

NATO faces Russia, China and all Arabs.