NATO
Russia’s Putin to meet Turkey’s Erdogan in Istanbul to discuss Syria
Source : Agencies | 03 Dec 2012
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a landmark visit to Istanbul on Monday to discuss their differences over the crisis in Syria.
The visit follows a delay because of tensions between the two countries over the 20-month-old Syrian conflict and speculation that the Russian president might postpone his long-awaited trip due to a back injury.
NATO: Patriot deployment to take weeks not months
By Slobodan Lekic | AP | 01 Dec 2012
NATO will deploy Patriot missiles to Turkey’s border with Syria “within several weeks” after the move is approved, officials said Friday.
A team assessing possible sites for the air defense systems is making good progress and is expected to report back to NATO’s military command soon, alliance spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said. This opens the possibility that foreign ministers of the 28 member countries, meeting in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday, could make the final decision.
France ends combat mission in Afghanistan
By AFP | 20 Nov 2012
France ended its last combat mission in Afghanistan on Tuesday, withdrawing troops from a strategic province northeast of Kabul as part of an accelerated departure from the war-torn country.
Paris has said all French combat soldiers will leave next month, two years before allied nations contributing to the 100,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) led by the United States are due to depart.
Afghans ready if NATO pull-out early: Karzai
Source : AFP | 19 Oct 2012
Afghanistan is ready to take responsibility for its own security even if NATO forces leave the country earlier than planned, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday.
Karzai was speaking at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who had earlier confirmed that the alliance’s combat mission in Afghanistan would end as scheduled in 2014.
“Afghanistan is ready to expedite the process if necessary,” Karzai said. “In case we do it before time we will be ready and happy too,” he added.
Kabul denies hand in US troops’ killing
Source : Agencies | 17 Oct 2012
Afghanistan’s security service is denying claims that the suicide bomber who killed two American troops and four Afghans in a weekend attack was a member of the country’s intelligence agency.
The service’s spokesman, Shafiqullah Tahiri, said yesterday the attacker wore an Afghan uniform to gain access to the intelligence headquarters in Kandahar’s Maruf district.
Tahiri says the attacker blew himself up as a group of NATO troops and Afghans were arriving to deliver new office furniture to the facility on Saturday.
British troops to leave Afghanistan next year
Source : Reuters | 15 Oct 2012
Britain plans to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan next year, Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said yesterday, as pressure mounts to end British involvement in the costly and unpopular war.
More than 430 British troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the US-led intervention in 2001, yet stability remains elusive and violence high, while relations between Western troops and Afghan forces and civilians are increasingly frayed.
Afghan government could collapse: Report
Source : AFP | 09 Oct 2012
The Afghan government could implode after NATO troops pull out in 2014, particularly if presidential elections are fraudulent, a report by the International Crisis Group said yesterday.
“There is a real risk that the regime in Kabul could collapse upon NATO’s withdrawal,” said Candace Rondeaux, the ICG’s senior Afghanistan analyst. “The window for remedial action is closing fast.”
In Afghanistan, a War with No Plan for Peace Continues
Source : Agencies | 03 Oct 2012
A series of confessions this week from top US and NATO officials leave dim hopes for a negotiated peace settlement in Afghanistan as western nations head for the exit doors with no plans in place for a stable transition to Afghan rule after 2014.
Georgia's Leader-in-Waiting Pledges to Work with Russia, NATO
Source : RIA Novosti | 02 Oct 2012
Georgia will seek close cooperation with both Russia and Western powers, billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili said on Tuesday, as his opposition coalition headed for election victory.
“It is very difficult to have many strategic partners, but we have to try and do this,” Ivanishvili told journalists. “If we can build a democratic state, I believe we will have a genuine opportunity to forge good relations with NATO and Russia.”
