Category Archives: Nato

Erdoğan hails ‘new era’ of friendship with Greece on historic visit to Athens

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President of Turkey signs friendship accord, saying longtime foes could provide ‘an example to the world’

Greece and Turkey have sought to put years of tensions behind them with a friendship accord signed during a historic visit to Athens by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The two Nato members – longtime foes in the air and sea – agreed to reset ties, sealing a “declaration on good neighbourly relations” which, it is hoped, will pave the way to settling disputes that have defied resolution for decades, including over undersea energy resources and the divided island of Cyprus.

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Turkish foreign minister told Sweden its Nato bid will be ratified ‘within weeks’ – Europe live

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Tobias Billström, Sweden’s foreign minister, says it is ‘high time to get this ratification done by Turkey and Hungary’

Sweden’s foreign minister said he is “grateful” for US support, as the country continues to wait to join Nato.

The Finnish president’s office told Reuters today the presidents of Finland and Poland did not discuss military cooperation regarding Finland’s border with Russia during a meeting last week.

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Finland to close border with Russia for two weeks, prime minister announces – as it happened

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Finnish PM Petteri Orpo says border crossing will close from Thursday as Finland accuses Russia of orchestrating arrival of people from third countries. This live blog is now closed

The foreign ministers of the Baltic states have decided not to attend the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) ministerial council in Skopje, the three politician said in a statement today.

We have also seen nothing but Russia’s obstructive behavior within the OSCE itself – first, by blocking any OSCE presence and activities in Ukraine, then by blocking Estonia’s 2024 chairmanship on completely fabricated reasons and now by blocking constructive solutions for keeping the organization alive and functional.

We deeply regret the decision enabling the personal participation of Russian Foreign Minister S. Lavrov at the 30th Session of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Skopje. It will only provide Russia with yet another propaganda opportunity.

Nato needs a proven consensus-builder. We are going to have 32 countries, keeping 32 countries together on any topic is a big challenge, and we need a consensus-builder that can work with any and all allies to move everyone forward in the same direction.

Second, I think it’s important that the next secretary general would come from a country … that has a proven track record of investing in his or her own military spending, so investing the 2% of GDP or above. I think that’s important as a clear signal to all allies that this really is important to us.

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Estonia accuses Russia of weaponising immigration at Europe’s borders

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Arrival of hundreds of people at Finnish and Estonian borders claimed to be ‘fully state-orchestrated’ operation

Estonia has accused Russia of weaponising immigration on Europe’s eastern borders amid a rise in the number of asylum seekers trying to enter its territory and Finland.

Speaking during a meeting in Stockholm of Nordic and Baltic defence ministers, Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s defence minister, claimed the hundreds of people who had arrived at the borders of the two countries in recent weeks were a “fully state-orchestrated” operation by Moscow.

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Sweden must join Nato soon to ward off Russian threat, says defence minister

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Exclusive: Pål Jonson unable to give timeline for completion of membership process but confident it will happen

Sweden must become a full member of the Nato military alliance “as fast as possible” to ward off the threat from Russia, the country’s defence minister has said, as impatience builds in Stockholm over its slow path to accession.

Pål Jonson said that he was unable to put a timeline on the completion of Sweden’s Nato approval process buthe was confident that Turkey and Hungary, the two remaining members left to ratify the country’s membership, would do so eventually.

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Rise in asylum seekers from Russia is Kremlin act of revenge, says Finnish president

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Sauli Niinistö says this is Russia’s response to Finland’s cooperation with US and vows to take ‘very clear action’

The Finnish president has vowed to take “very clear action” over the growing number of asylum seekers arriving from Russia, which he said appeared to be a Kremlin act of revenge for Finland’s cooperation with the US.

Sauli Niinistö’s comments come after the Finnish border guard reported steadily increasing numbers of asylum seekers arriving at border crossing points in south-east Finland in recent days.

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Ex-Nato chief proposes Ukraine joins without Russian-occupied territories

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Former secretary general says partial membership would warn Russia it cannot stop Ukraine joining the alliance

A former Nato secretary general has put forward a proposal for Ukraine to join the military alliance but stripped of the territories occupied by Russia.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen has long worked alongside Andriy Yermak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, particularly ahead of the last Nato summit in Vilnius this year that ended with no invitation for Ukraine to join.

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Turkey’s president submits bill to ratify Sweden’s Nato membership

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Erdoğan signs protocol and sends it to Turkish parliament after agreeing to Sweden’s membership at Nato summit in July

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has removed one of the final hurdles blocking Sweden from joining Nato by submitting a bill approving membership to parliament for ratification.

The move on Monday was in line with a commitment Erdoğan made to Nato at its summit in July when he said he would send the bill to parliament for ratification when parliament restarted in October.

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Russia-Ukraine war: IOC bans Russian Olympic Committee for including annexed regions of Ukraine

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International Olympic Committee says inclusion of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia merits immediate suspension

Romania’s defence ministry has reported the discovery of a drone crater near the country’s border with Ukraine after Russian attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure on Wednesday evening.

Reuters reports the ministry said there was a “possible explosion on impact”, and measures had been taken to secure the area and forces would continue to monitor Romania’s airspace.

Avdiivka. We are holding our ground. It is Ukrainian courage and unity that will determine how this war will end. We must all remember this.

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Pressure mounts for Turkey and Hungary to ratify Swedish Nato bid – as it happened

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At Nato meeting of foreign ministers, ongoing saga of Sweden’s bid to join organisation in spotlight again

One issue defence ministers will discuss today is the implementation of the alliance’s new military plans – and how equipment and troops will be placed on Nato’s sensitive eastern flank.

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, assured other Nato defence ministers that it was possible to give strong support to both Israel and Ukraine, a US official and a European diplomat told the Guardian.

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Nato vows to respond if Finland-Estonia gas pipeline damage is deliberate

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Alliance’s chief says if there is proof of attack it will be met with ‘determined’ response, amid speculation about Russian sabotage

Nato has promised a “determined” response if damage to an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia proves deliberate, as investigators said traces of an “external, mechanical force” had been found on the seabed.

Amid widespread media speculation about the likelihood of Russian sabotage, Risto Lohi of the Finnish national bureau of investigation told a press conference in Helsinki on Wednesday: “There is reason to suspect an external force … caused the damage.” The force, he added, “appears to have been mechanical, not an explosion”.

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Zelenskiy fears Middle East conflict could hit military aid to Ukraine

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President warns of ‘dangerous situation’ for his country as western attention shifts to Israel after Hamas attack

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said he fears that the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Israel and US politics could threaten military support for his country, as he made a surprise visit to Brussels where Nato defence ministers are meeting.

“I want to be honest with you, of course it is a dangerous situation for people in Ukraine,” he said on his first visit to Nato headquarters since Russia’s 2022 invasion, making an in-person plea for continued assistance at a time when turbulence in the US Congress threatens to disrupt aid for Kyiv and the world’s attention is drawn to the crisis unfolding in the Middle East.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russian missile strike kills at least four in school, say Ukrainian officials – as it happened

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Rescuers searching for people under rubble of school in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk, says regional governor

Secretary general of Nato Jens Stoltenberg is greeting Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy outside Nato headquarters. They are expected to address the media. I will bring you any key quotes or lines that emerge.

Netherland’s defence secretary Kajsa Ollongren has said outside the Nato headquarters in Brussels that there is “no doubt” that the alliance “will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes”.

We will say today in presence of president Zelenskiy that the war in Ukraine, the Russian aggression in Ukraine, is not a regional conflict, is not just Ukraine’s problem. We feel it is also our responsibility to support Ukraine to withstand this aggression, to fight back against this aggression, and we are very much aware of the fact that they need us to do so. They need us for training, for capabilities, for ammunition. And we are steadfast in our support.

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US shoots down Turkish drone flying near its troops in Syria

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Turkey’s defence ministry says the device did not belong to the country’s armed forces

The US has shot down an armed Turkish drone that was operating near its troops in Syria, the first time Washington has brought down an aircraft of its Nato ally.

A Turkish defence ministry official said the drone did not belong to the Turkish armed forces, but did not say whose property it was.

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Kosovan government calls on Serbia to pull all troops from border

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Demand follows part withdrawal after US warning of potential punitive measures against Belgrade

Kosovo has demanded that Serbia pull its troops back from their common border and warned it was ready to protect its territorial integrity, after the US warned of punitive measures against Belgrade and Serbia’s president insisted he “does not want war”.

“We call on … Serbia to immediately withdraw all troops from the border with Kosovo,” the Kosovan government said, demanding that Belgrade “demilitarise” 48 forward military and police bases, “which pose a permanent threat to our country”.

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‘Goal is destruction of Ukraine’: ex-defence minister warns west of Putin’s aim

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Oleksii Reznikov urges unity against Russia ‘to save this world from catastrophe of world war three’

Ukraine’s former defence minister has warned his western counterparts that negotiations with Moscow will not bring peace, and that Vladimir Putin remains determined to destroy Ukraine entirely and to “assimilate” its citizens into the Russian Federation.

In an article for the Guardian, Oleksii Reznikov says any “deal” with the Kremlin would not end the conflict. “Russia demands the recognition of the occupied territories of Ukraine as its territory in exchange for the end of the war,” he writes.

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Nato pledges ‘strong solidarity’ with Romania over likely Russian drone debris

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Romanian president deplores potential ‘serious violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Romania, a Nato ally’

Nato has said it stands in “strong solidarity” with Romania, which has reported that parts of a probable Russian drone fell on its territory during a Russian attack on neighbouring Ukraine.

“We continue to monitor the situation closely, and we remain in close contact with our ally Romania,” Nato said in a statement on Wednesday night.

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Nato official apologises over suggestion Ukraine could give up land for membership

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Secretary general’s chief of staff says statement was ‘mistake’ and part of wider discussion – but does not completely rule out idea

A senior Nato official has apologised and clarified his comments a day after he said publicly that Ukraine could give up territory to Russia in exchange for Nato membership and an end to the war.

Stian Jenssen, the chief of staff to the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, told a Norwegian newspaper that he should not have spoken as simplistically as he did, after his initial comments prompted an angry reaction from Kyiv.

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Russia spreading false claims about Qur’an burnings to harm Nato bid, says Sweden

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Defence agency says Moscow is using the protests in Stockholm to stir tensions between Arab countries and the west

The Swedish authorities have accused Russia of trying to influence how Qur’an burnings are viewed around the world through disinformation campaigns written in Arabic. It is believed to be part of an attempt to disrupt Sweden’s Nato membership process, which is still waiting for approval by Turkey and Hungary.

Sweden’s psychological defence agency, part of the Ministry of Defence, said that the Russian state-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik had published a series of articles in Arabic, falsely claiming that the Swedish government supported Qur’an burning. Since the end of June, the authorities have logged about a million similar posts in Arabic and other languages. The warning from the agency – a cold war-era body brought back last year to fight foreign disinformation as tensions with Russia escalated – follows another burning in a spate of such desecrations in Sweden.

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John Bolton suggests US will leave Nato if ‘erratic’ Trump wins in 2024

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Ex-national security adviser calls former boss ‘irrational’ and criticizes Republicans who support him on foreign policy

Ex-national security adviser John Bolton issued harsh remarks against his former boss and the leading 2024 Republican presidential candidate, saying that the US will likely withdraw from Nato if Donald Trump wins the election.

In an interview with the Hill on Thursday, Bolton criticized the former president’s foreign policy after an op-ed he wrote earlier this week called Trump’s behavior “erratic, irrational and unconstrained”.

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