Bookmarks (39) clear filters

Peers behind a cross-party amendment to halt plans to restrict prosecutions of torture and war crimes by British soldiers serving abroad are hopeful of inflicting a high-profile defeat on the government in the Lords on Tuesday.A group led by former Nato secretary general and Labour defence secretary Lord Robertson w...

Ukraine’s president has called on Nato and key member states to hasten his country’s membership of the western military alliance in response to a growing buildup of Russian forces on his country’s borders.Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke to Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, on Tuesday, and urged for Ukraine to be...

As the deadline for US withdrawal looms, the Taliban are seizing their chance and the death toll rises dailyGhazaal Habibyar’s trembling hand hovered over her mobile phone, unable to type the numbers. “I was afraid to hear bad news,” she recalls of that morning in Kabul when she heard there’d been an explosion close to her young son’s school.“Why should we have to choose...

Treaty signatories include Africa’s most populous country and Europe’s least populated, but Russia and Nato on the sidelinesAn international treaty banning all nuclear weapons that has been signed by 51 countries and that campaigners hope will help raise the profile of global deterrence efforts comes into force on Friday.Although in some respects the step is largely symbolic because the world’s nuclear powers have not...

Military run down after cold war but Russian activity in Baltic Sea forces hasty rearmamentSweden will increase military spending by about 40% in the next five years and double the number of people conscripted into its armed forces as it aims to strengthen its defence amid growing tensions with Russia, the government has said.The country, which is not a member of Nato but enjoys...

Rescue boats had begun ‘gently moving’ pod of three whales towards the mouth of the River ClydeRescuers shepherded a pod of three northern bottlenose whales from a Scottish loch on Thursday before a major international military exercise.The British Divers Marine Life Rescue group said a first group of boats had begun “gently moving” the deep-diving mammals from Loch Long towards the mouth of the...

The EU is in the country’s DNA. But global threats mean a strong transatlantic western alliance has never been more vitalHappy birthday, Germany: 30 years old on 3 October, the anniversary of German unification in 1990. But hang on a minute, isn’t Germany 71? Counting, that is, from the foundation of the Federal Republic in 1949. Or 149, if we go back to the...

Deepening dispute between Nato allies has dragged in neighbours and is in danger of spiralling out of controlAn increasingly fractious standoff over access to gas reserves has transformed a dispute between Turkey and Greece that was once primarily over Cyprus into one that now ensnares Libya, Israel, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and feeds into other political issues in the Mediterranean and has...

Nato has condemned the poisoning of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny with the nerve agent novichok as a 'disrespect for human life' and 'breach of international norms'. Russia had serious questions to answer about the case, the secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said after reaching a unanimous agreement with Nato ambassadors Continue reading...

‘Ghostwriter’ campaign said to involve replacing true stories with false ones on news sites in Poland and LithuaniaHackers “aligned with Russian security interests” have been engaged in a sustained campaign to compromise news websites in Poland and Lithuania to plant false stories aimed at discrediting Nato, according to a new report.Part of the campaign – labelled “Ghostwriter” – involved gaining access to news sites...

Donald Trump has defended the decision to pull US troops out of Germany, telling reporters the move was a reaction to the country’s defence spending. The US will bring about 6,400 forces home and shift about 5,600 to other countries in Europe, US defence leaders said on Wednesday, detailing a Pentagon plan that will cost billions of dollars and take years to implementUS to...

Trump threatened withdrawal after accusing Germany of not spending enough on military Nato’s secretary general has said no timeline or firm plan has been agreed for Donald Trump’s proposed withdrawal of 9,500 US troops from Germany, suggesting it could be softened if Berlin agrees to increase its defence budget.Jens Stoltenberg said it was “not yet decided how and when this decision will be implemented”...

UK politicians and military experts warn decision could hand advantage to Russia British politicians and European military experts have warned that Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw 9,500 troops from Germany risks handing a strategic advantage to the Kremlin and undermining the postwar western military alliance.It would also affect the United States’s ability to operate in the Middle East and Africa – although there is...

Joint statement urges US to remain in Open Skies Treaty, designed to reduce risk of war breaking out through miscalculationA group of retired Nato generals and defence officials have urged the US to stay in a 1992 treaty with Russia on mutual reconnaissance flights, but also warned European capitals to prepare for a US exit.The US defence secretary, Mark Esper, and the secretary of...

Military alliance could strengthen reconnaissance missions to limit threat from Russian planesNato allies will consider strengthening Ankara’s air defences in response to the strike that killed 33 Turkish troops in rebel-held Syria overnight, following an emergency meeting of the military alliance in Brussels on Friday.Turkey had also called for western countries to establish a no-fly zone after the incident but Nato sources stressed that...

Neither side can back down from proxy standoff, but Russia holds whip hand in IdlibFor more than three years, Russia and Turkey have been shadow boxing on the soils of northern Syria. In the past three weeks, the stalking has turned to shooting; the Turks aiming their guns at the Moscow-allied Assad regime, and the Russians increasingly swinging their turrets towards the Turkish military.In...

French president says EU must have effective defence policy, larger budget and integrated capital marketsEurope’s middle classes will only remain reconciled to the European Union if it becomes more integrated, with an effective defence policy, a larger budget and integrated capital markets, and is shorn of vetoes that slow decision-making, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said.Setting out his 10-year vision for Europe on...

Sinking in the Swamp says Trump’s ‘lead point of contact’ for US allies seemed unaware of alliance members’ commitment to defend each other from attackThough Jared Kushner was a “lead point of contact” for US allies worried about Donald Trump’s threats to Nato, the president’s son-in-law did not “seem to know what Nato actually did”, a new book claims. Related: Jared Kushner may have...