NATO

NOVI SAD - Serbia is getting new opportunities for continuation and improvement of cooperation with NATO within an individual action plan that should be signed in March, U.S. Ambassador in Serbia Michael Kirby said on Wednesday.

NATO on Wednesday urged Russia to withdraw all forces from eastern Ukraine and to end  its support for the pro-Moscow separatists as a ceasefire appeared to unravel.
      

At a GLOBSEC debate on Monday in Bratislava that focused on strategic issues, Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu underscored the importance to Romania as a NATO border country of the consolidation of NATO's eastern flank, saying that that is a top priority right now.

Photo credit: (c) Liviu SOVA / AGERPRES PHOTO

About a hundred people have demonstrated against Bulgaria's NATO membership, calling on the alliance "to leave" the country.

The event started at Sunday noon at the square in front of Bulgaria's Presidency and later headed to the National Assembly.

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov has said that neither is his country preparing to go to war with anyone, nor is Russia intending to go to war with Bulgaria.

Bulgarian Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev reassured on Wednesday that no mobilisation was taking place in the country.

Nenchev also dismissed rumours that NATO had requested the participation of Bulgarian troops in operations due to the Ukrainian crisis.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev will convene a meeting of the Consultative Council for National Security in March over defense issues.

Plevneliev made clear that the meeting would be devoted to the country's defense policy and the condition of its armed forces.

Romanian National Defence Minister Mircea Dusa announced in Cluj-Napoca (northwest of the capital) on Monday that he wished NATO Force Integration Unit (NFIU) to be operational by June.

Photo credit: (c) Liviu Sova / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

MUNICH - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the sidelines of the Security Conference in Munich, and said that Serbia maintains good relations with NATO through the participation in the program 'Partnership for Peace'.

Russia is highly likely to intervene in the Baltic states to test NATO's collective defence commitment, the former head of the Atlantic alliance was quoted as saying by Britain's Daily Telegraph on Feb. 6.
      
"This is not about Ukraine. Putin wants to restore Russia to its former position as a great power," Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the daily.