Munich Security Conference

The EU Defense Ministers will hold an informal meeting in Helsinki today and tomorrow.

The role of new technologies and artificial intelligence in European defense will be key topics during the talks in the Finnish capital.

At a meeting on Tuesday with Chairman of the Munich Security Conference Wolfgang Ischinger, Romania's Foreign Minister Ramona Manescu urged NATO and EU to increase their attention to security developments in the Black Sea region as an essential part of Euro-Atlantic security.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she would extend the negotiation term for Brexit if London gives a good reason for that, Reuters reported.

In an interview with several European newspapers, including the German Zeitung, von der Leyen said the EU will wait for the new British Prime Minister to be elected first and then try to negotiate.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and the EU Foreign Policy Chief, Federica Mogherini, discussed the situation in Eastern Mediterranean over a phone call, diplomatic sources said on July 15.           

In Brussels today, the meeting of NATO defense ministers continues. The main topic today will be the relationship between the United States and Iran. For the first time at a meeting of the Alliance is also involved the new US Defense Minister Mark Esper.

NATO is ready to give support in finding a solution to the current disagreement between Turkey and the U.S. on the issue of the Russian-made S-400 defense systems, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said, stressing that potential U.S. sanctions will also harm the alliance.

Turkey and Russia will hold a planning group meeting under the leadership of the two countries' foreign ministers, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Sergei Lavrov, in the southern province of Antalya on March 29. They are expected to discuss a number of bilateral issues as well as developments in Syria.

The annual Munich Security Conference, which ended on Sunday, became a stage of open confrontation between the United States and the major governments of Europe. What was on display at the conference is the growing rift between US President Donald Trump and Europe, which is now open and angry. 

But he added that this would be exceptionally difficult.

VVucic poke for the US agency during the Munich Security Conference, to say that task will be harder than the Greece-Macedonia deal, and will first have to see cancellation of Pristina's taxes on Serbian goods increased by 100 percent, and a free flow of people and goods.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday she had given up hope that Athens and Skopje could ever find a solution to the decades-old name dispute, before congratulating the two prime ministers for reaching a settlement.