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☆ NATO chief says 'time is now' for Turkey to ratify Finland and Sweden membership bids
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Huseyin Hayatsever | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ANKARA, Feb 16 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday the "time is now" for Turkey to ratify applications by Finland and Sweden to join the defence alliance. Finland and Sweden applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year and their membership bids have been ratified by all allies except Hungary and Turkey. Turkey says Sweden harbors members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is seen as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and others. "For me, this just demonstrates that Sweden and Finland understand and are implementing policies which recognize the concerns that Turkey expressed. Cavusoglu repeated Turkey's position that it could evaluate Finland and Sweden's bids to join NATO separately.

☆ Major Russian Offensive Is Under Way in Ukraine, NATO Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Matthew Luxmoore | Bojan Pancevski | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Western officials said Russia was tightening its noose around the contested city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization warned the start of a major new Russian offensive was now under way. Defense ministers of the alliance’s member states were due to meet on Tuesday to discuss the provision of further support for Ukraine, including ramping up production in NATO countries of ammunition and other military aid, as Russia’s invasion nears its one-year mark.

☆ NATO to extend Stoltenberg's term to April 2024, Welt am Sonntag reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Feb 12 (Reuters) - NATO will extend again the term of Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Welt am Sonntag reported on Sunday, citing unidentified diplomatic sources, as the alliance seeks to maintain stability during the war in Ukraine. Members will extend Stoltenberg's term until April 2024 due to his "outstanding achievements" and to guarantee the military alliance's stability during the ongoing war in Ukraine, the newspaper said. Stoltenberg, an economist by training and a former leader of Norway's Labour Party, had his original NATO term extended last year. He was prime minister of Norway from 2000-01 and 2005-13 before becoming NATO chief the following year. Welt said alliance members want to give Stoltenberg the opportunity to chair the organisation's 75th anniversary summit in Washington in April 2024.

☆ Russia says NATO should hold emergency summit over Nord Stream blasts
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 12 (Reuters) - NATO should hold an emergency meeting to discuss recent findings about September explosions at the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said late on Saturday. The White House dismissed as "utterly false and complete fiction" the claim that the United States was behind explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which send Russian gas to Germany. The United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have called the incident "an act of sabotage." "So when will an emergency NATO summit meet to review the situation?" NATO did not immediately respond to Reuters request for a comment.

☆ Moldova Says Russian Missile Entered Its Airspace as Barrage in Ukraine Intensifies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Isabel Coles | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine—Moldova said a Russian missile entered its airspace en route to a target in Ukraine during the latest wave of Russian attacks, adding to the risk of the war spilling over as the Kremlin laid out its plans to mark the first anniversary of the invasion. The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, said two missiles were launched from the Black Sea on Friday and strayed across the border with Moldova and over Romania—a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member—before re-entering Ukrainian airspace. Both Moldova and Romania said one missile had been detected, and that it had passed only over Moldova, which condemned it as a violation of its airspace.

☆ Ukraine’s Zelensky to Visit U.K. as Britain Steps Up Training, Military Aid
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to visit the U.K. to address Parliament on Wednesday, his second known overseas trip as he seeks to build Western support for greater military aid to his country amid signs of an impending Russian offensive. The U.K. government has proved a firm ally and vocal advocate of military aid to Ukraine ever since Russia’s attack on the country last February. Successive U.K. leaders have urged allies in The North Atlantic Treaty Organization to be more forward leaning in boosting support for Ukraine by providing more lethal weaponry and funds, to try to tip the war decisively in Ukraine’s favor.

☆ Trump’s Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( J.D. Vance | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

A few days before America’s 2022 midterm elections, Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky accused Russia of firing a rocket into Poland. In making the accusation, Mr. Zelensky was pushing on the dominoes that could start the world’s first war between nuclear powers. The rocket attack, it turns out, came not from Vladimir Putin’s Russia but from Ukrainian air defenses. Even after NATO made that assessment and acknowledged that Russia hadn’t fired the rocket, Mr. Zelensky continued to deny Ukrainian responsibility. The story faded from the headlines, and Mr. Zelensky enjoyed a hero’s welcome in Washington in December.

☆ NATO's Stoltenberg arrives in S.Korea to deepen alliance's ties in Asia
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Josh Smith | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

In Seoul, Stoltenberg is due to meet with Foreign Minister Park Jin, Minister of National Defence Lee Jong-Sup, and other senior officials, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in a statement. Yoon and Kishida became the first leaders from their countries to attend a NATO summit, joining alliance leaders as observers last year. Following the summit, South Korea opened its first diplomatic mission to NATO, vowing to deepen cooperation on non-proliferation, cyber defence, counter-terrorism, disaster response and other security areas. Chinese state media had warned against South Korea and Japan attending the NATO summit and criticised the alliance's broadening partnerships in Asia. North Korea has said NATO involvement in the Asia-Pacific region would import the conflict raging in Europe.

☆ NATO’s Willing Members vs. Germany on Tanks for Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared last year his commitment to bolstering the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Scholz last week demonstrated that he’s now one of the main impediments to NATO unity as his vacillations over military aid to Ukraine force Germany’s allies to create their own coalitions of the willing. The main event was Friday’s summit at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, which failed to dislodge Mr. Scholz’s opposition to new tank deliveries to Ukraine. Mr. Scholz’s refusal to provide Leopard 2 tanks or to allow anyone else to send them has exasperated Washington, as we noted over the weekend, and is damaging Germany’s reputation.

☆ Russia's military reforms respond to NATO's expansion, Ukraine -chief of general staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Lidia Kelly | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The military reforms, announced mid-January, have been approved by Putin and can be adjusted to respond to threats to Russia's security, Gerasimov told the news website Argumenty i Fakty in remarks published late Monday. Under Moscow's new military plan, an army corps will be added to Karelia in Russia's north, which borders with Finland. In Ukraine, Russia will add three motorized rifle divisions as part of combined arms formations in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, parts of which Moscow claims it annexed in September. "The main goal of this work is to ensure guaranteed protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country," Gerasimov said. "Our country and its armed forces are today acting against the entire collective West," Gerasimov said.

☆ Finland says timeout needed in talks with Turkey over NATO bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Essi Lehto | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

HELSINKI, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Finland's foreign minister said on Tuesday a timeout of a few weeks is needed in the talks between Finland, Sweden and Turkey on the two Nordic nations' plans to join the NATO military alliance. Sweden and Finland applied last year to join North Atlantic Treaty Organization after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. They now need the backing of all current NATO states to progress with their application. Finland and Sweden have repeatedly said they plan to join the alliance simultaneously, and this has not changed, Haavisto said. "I do not see the need for a discussion about that," Haavisto said when asked whether Finland could potentially go ahead without Sweden.

☆ Turkey’s Erdogan Threatens to Block Sweden’s NATO Entrance Over Quran Burning
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Jared Malsin | Sune Engel Rasmussen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Police secure an area outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, over the weekend, preparing for potential demonstrations. ISTANBUL—Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday issued a new threat to block Sweden’s entrance to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after a far-right politician publicly burned a copy of the Quran in Stockholm over the weekend. “If you speak about freedoms and rights, then first things first, you should show respect to the religious belief of Muslims and Turkish people,” Mr. Erdogan said in televised remarks after a cabinet meeting. “If you do not show such respect, then you cannot see any kind of support from us on NATO.”

☆ Ukraine War Lands Europe’s Leaders in a Battle of Wills
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Marcus Walker | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Europe is winning its energy war with Russia. The region’s economy and politics are proving more stable than its leaders feared earlier in their confrontation with Moscow. Now the question facing them is whether they want Ukraine to win the shooting war. The rift between Germany and many of its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, including the U.S., over whether to supply Kyiv with German-made Leopard 2 tanks reflects continuing differences among Western leaders over the stakes and risks of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

☆ France’s Macron Seeks Bigger Military, Leaner Pension System
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Stacy Meichtry | Noemie Bisserbe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

French President Emmanuel Macron ‘s pledge to increase military spending, a day after a million people hit the streets to protest his planned pension overhaul, illustrates the test facing European welfare systems as the costs of war in Ukraine pile up. On Friday, Mr. Macron vowed to raise military spending to 400 billion euros, equivalent to $433 billion, between 2024 and 2030, up from €295 billion between 2019 and 2025. France currently spends around 1.9% of its gross domestic product on defense, just shy of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s target of 2%.

"The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war," Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Putin's powerful security council, said in a post on Telegram. Russia and the United States, by far the largest nuclear powers, hold around 90% of the world's nuclear warheads. While NATO has conventional military superiority over Russia, when it comes to nuclear weapons, Russia has nuclear superiority over the alliance in Europe. Russia's nuclear doctrine allows for a nuclear strike after "aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened". Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Medvedev has repeatedly raised the threat of nuclear chaos and used insults to describe the West.

☆ No need for German, U.S. tanks to be sent to Ukraine simultaneously -defence minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Germany's new Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said he did not know of any requirement that Ukraine receive U.S. and German tanks simultaneously, before a meeting on Friday at which future supplies to Kyiv will be discussed. Younger people were also more reluctant to send tanks than older respondents in the survey. A German government source earlier said that Berlin had not so far received any requests for a licence to re-export Leopard tanks. Poland and Finland have already said they will send Leopard tanks to Ukraine if Germany gives approval for export. Berlin has veto power over any decision to export its Leopard tanks, fielded by NATO-allied armies across Europe and seen by defence experts as the most suitable for Ukraine.

☆ Berlin Won’t Allow Exports of German Tanks to Ukraine Unless U.S. Sends Its Own
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Bojan Pancevski | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

German-made Leopard tanks like this one are considered to be among the most sophisticated in the world. BERLIN—Germany won’t allow allies to ship German-made tanks to Ukraine to help its defense against Russia nor send its own systems unless the U.S. agrees to send American-made battle tanks, senior German officials said on Wednesday. North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies have over 2,000 German-made Leopard tanks, considered to be among the most sophisticated in the world, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

☆ Davos 2023: NATO chief calls for significant boost in arms for Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( John Irish | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine needs a "significant increase" in weapons at a pivotal moment in Russia's invasion and such support is the only way to a negotiated peaceful solution, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday. "This is a pivotal moment in the war and the need for a significant increase in support for Ukraine," Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "If we want a negotiated peaceful solution tomorrow we need to provide more weapons today." Beyond tanks, Stoltenberg said Ukraine needed more air defence systems and armour but also ammunition, spare parts and maintenance capabilities to ensure that its existing weapons continued to function. He said the situation along battlefronts had stabilised over the past weeks, but that the protracted fierce fighting in the eastern city of Bakhmut demonstrated the importance of providing more weapons to support Ukraine.

Berlin has veto power over any decision to export its Leopard tanks, fielded by NATO-allied armies across Europe and seen by defence experts as the most suitable for Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has stressed the condition about U.S. tanks several times in recent days behind closed doors, the German government source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. This week, Britain raised the pressure on Berlin by becoming the first Western country to send tanks, pledging a squadron of its Challengers. Poland and Finland have already said they will send Leopard tanks if Germany approves them. "The supplies of Western tanks must outpace another invasion of Russian tanks."

☆ All eyes on Germany when defense leaders meet on arming Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Idrees Ali | Thomson Reuters | National Security Correspondent Focusing On The Pentagon In Washington D.C. Reports On U.S. Military Activity | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Ints KalninsWASHINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - When dozens of defense ministers meet at an airbase in Germany on Friday, all eyes will be set on what Berlin is - and is not - willing to provide Ukraine. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been set to meet German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht in Berlin before the Ramstein conference, but she resigned from her post on Monday. Instead, Germany's new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will host Austin on Thursday. Some Eastern European officials have publicly called on Germany to allow the transfer of Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Well, they're not alone," British Defense minister Ben Wallace said on Monday.

☆ Zelensky Calls on Allies to Speed Up Arms Supplies as Kyiv Warns of Fresh Russian Offensive
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Matthew Luxmoore | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

KYIV, Ukraine—President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukraine’s Western allies to accelerate the provision of arms to the country at a critical moment in its defense effort, as Russia seeks to seize momentum on the battlefield and Kyiv warns Moscow may be preparing a new spring offensive. Representatives of more than 50 countries supporting Ukraine are set to gather in Ramstein, Germany, later this week to discuss supplies to Kyiv. The U.S.-led assembly, known as the contact group, includes all countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and key allies offering lethal and nonlethal aid.

☆ Iraqi Prime Minister Supports Indefinite U.S. Troop Presence
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( David S. Cloud | Michael Amon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

BAGHDAD—Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani defended the presence of U.S. troops in his country and set no timetable for their withdrawal, signaling a less confrontational posture toward Washington early in his term than his Iran-backed political allies have taken. “We think that we need the foreign forces,” Mr. Sudani said in his first U.S. interview since taking office in October, referring to the American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troop contingents that train and assist Iraqi units in countering Islamic State but largely stay out of combat. “Elimination of ISIS needs some more time,” he added.

The U.S. is looking to sell 40 new F-16s to Turkey, officials said. The Biden administration is preparing to seek congressional approval for a $20 billion sale of new F-16 jet fighters to Turkey along with a separate sale of next-generation F-35 warplanes to Greece, in what would be among the largest foreign weapons sales in recent years, according to U.S. officials. Congress’s approval is contingent on Turkey’s signoff on Finland and Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the officials said. Turkey has blocked the two countries’ applications over objections to their ties to Kurdish separatist groups. Both countries ended decades of neutrality by deciding to join NATO last year in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Others, like China, have criticized the war without meaningfully reducing ties with Russia. The war prompted condemnation in the United Nations and saw Russia booted from the UN Human Rights Council. Beijing has walked a careful line since the invasion began, at times exhibiting impatience with Russia's war in Ukraine. Putin in September acknowledged that China had "questions and concerns" about the war while meeting with Xi in Uzbekistan. "Putin's allies are not 'turning on him,' only expressing dissatisfaction at the difficulties his war in Ukraine is causing them," he added.

☆ Asia, Europe Look to Collective Action to Restrain China
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Alastair Gale | Chieko Tsuneoka | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

TOKYO—Democracies in Asia that rely on the backstop of U.S. military power for their prosperity are confronting a new reality: American protection is no longer enough now that China rivals the U.S. in areas such as advanced missiles and naval hardware. To tackle the problem, Beijing’s neighbors, with prodding from the U.S. and help from Europe, are building a network of regional security ties with a goal similar to that of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: deterring a large nation whose growing ambitions have raised the prospect of conflict.

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