North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Nato countries are taking part in their biggest ever joint military exercises in Poland, amid concerns about a potential threat from Russia.
Some 31,000 Polish, US and other troops are participating in the land, sea and air exercises called Anaconda-16.

BELGRADE - Russia is concerned over bilateral programs of certain NATO countries with Ukraine, Russia's NATO Ambassador Alexander Grushko told Rossiya 24 television on Monday.

BELGRADE - NATO member-countries seek no confrontation with Russia, the North Atlantic Alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

"We do not want confrontation with Russia. On the contrary, we strive for a more constructive relationship with Russia," he told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Actually, the tension is not only between Turkey and Russia but between the NATO alliance and Russia. NATO's Parliamentary Assembly urged its 28 members on May 30, after sessions in Tirana, to stand up to Russia's military "assertiveness" and "to provide reassurance" to those allies who feel their security is under threat, "focusing on the eastern and southern flanks of the alliance."

Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, Chief of Hellenic National Defence General Staff, arrived on a three-day official visit to Bulgaria at the invitation of the Chief of Defence General Constantin Popov, the Defence Ministry in Sofia announced on Monday.

BELGRADE - The United States apparently has big plans for Kosovo and the Balkans in general, political analyst Petr Iskenderov told Radio Sputnik. These include increasing Washington's political influence and military presence in the territory that was carved out of Serbia following NATO's military intervention.

BELGRADE - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has escalated a row with Washington, over images of U.S. special forces wearing Syrian Kurdish militia patches. "The support the U.S. has given to the PYD and YPG.  I condemn it," Erdogan bellowed to a crowd at an airport opening ceremony in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish south east.

The Bulgarian defence ministry is planning to refit two of the frigates currently in service to the navy in order to fully restore their capabilities.

The refitting of Drazki and Verni frigates, both of which used to be in service to the Belgian navy, will be carried at the same time as the acquisition of two new multi-purpose patrol ships.

BELGRADE - Kosovo, a predominantly Muslim land severed from Serbia by US and NATO military intervention, was turned into a hotbed of radical Islamism and a fertile recruiting ground for terrorists thanks to money pumped into it by Gulf kingdoms, the New York Times reported.

US Ambassador to Bulgaria Eric Seth Rubin has said his country deploy an additional number of troops and provide more trainings next year.

Answering to questions during his meeting with members of the American Chamber of Commerce, he has added the move will be part of an overall boost in capabilities deployed to the Black Sea region.