Military

Two Operation Atlantic Resolve military exercises started in Eastern Europe on Tuesday, a Pentagon spokesman has said.

The 173rd airborne Brigade jumped into Smardan Training Area, Romania, for a combined, multinational training exercise with Romanian allies the US Department of Defense quotes Col Steve Warren as saying.

US programme helps Balkans get closer to NATO

Military-to-military co-operation with the US improves several Balkan countries' efforts to advance their defence systems and become NATO members.

Members of the Maryland National Guard train with soldiers from Bosnia and Herzegovina. [Defense.gov]

BELGRADE - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on the occasion of 16 years since the start of the NATO bombing of Serbia late on Tuesday that Serbia had learnt the lesson and would continue to fight for a normal and dignified life in Europe.

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic stated on Tuesday that the Serbia-NATO relations should develop on grounds of joint interests embodied in peace and stability in the region.

Washington is providing reconnaissance support for Iraqi forces fighting to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an official said March 24, the first confirmation of American involvement in the operation.
      

Bulgarian companies exporting timber staged partial blockade of the country's borders and roads on Tuesday.

The protests come as response to the three-month moratorium on the export of timber, private bTV station reports.

BELGRADE - The opposition Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) submitted to the Serbian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense Tuesday a public announcement about their not consenting to an agreement on the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with NATO, signed a few days ago.

Turkey should have the ability to develop its own missile and space technologies in order to respond to security challenges that could arise from its neighbors, the prime minister has said, amid NATO's concerns Ankara will finalize a deal with a Chinese company for a $3.4 billion long-range missile defense system.

BELGRADE - A central commemorative ceremony marking the beginning of 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia will be held in front of the former General Staff building, downtown Belgrade, on Tuesday at 7:58 p.m., as the hour when the air strikes against the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia started 16 years ago.

Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Macedonia are set to sign a agreement on their joint participation in the new NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

The defence ministers of the countries will shortly sign the technical contract on deploying troops in a joint unit in a mission codenamed Resolute Support, which launched in January.