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Russia, Turkey and Iran on Tuesday vowed to continue their cooperation to ”eliminate terrorists” in Syria, in a trilateral statement after their presidents met in Tehran.

The three countries ”reaffirmed the determination to continue their ongoing cooperation in order to ultimately eliminate terrorist individuals, groups, undertakings and entities,” the statement read.

They ”expressed their opposition to the illegal seizure and transfer of oil revenues that should belong to Syria”.

They also ”rejected all attempts to create new realities on the ground under the pretext of combating terrorism, including illegitimate self-rule initiatives, and expressed their determination to stand against separatist agendas” in Syria. […]

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had however told the Turkish leader in a pre-summit meeting that a new Turkish offensive against the Kurds in Syria would be ”detrimental” for the region. He called for the issue to be resolved through dialogue between Ankara, Damascus, Moscow and Tehran.

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The Austrian Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, affirmed that his country will not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), according to television in this capital.

According to Nehammer, Austria will not follow the example of Sweden and Finland, which have revised their neutrality and are now trying to join the Atlantic alliance. The nation is committed to a joint international and security policy with the European Union, and plans to invest more in its own defense, the Austrian Chancellor stressed.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a military operation on February 24 in response to the call of the self-proclaimed Donbass republics, Finland and Sweden rethought their traditional policy of neutrality. Läs artikel

[…] The Times article was about Obama’s refusal, in the face of bipartisan pressure, to send arms to Ukraine. Obama, the Times reported, “has told aides and visitors that arming the Ukrainians would encourage the notion that they could actually defeat the far more powerful Russians, and so it would potentially draw a more forceful response from Moscow.”

An anonymous source paraphrased Obama as asking questions like, “Okay, what happens if we send in equipment – do we have to send in trainers?” And, “What if it ends up in the hands of thugs? What if Putin escalates?” In the absence of satisfactory answers, Obama confined aid to things like helmets and night vision goggles.

After he left office, Washington reversed course and sent lethal military aid to Ukraine—billions of dollars worth. And, to answer Obama’s questions: Yes, that turned out to involve sending trainers to Ukraine—as well as conducting NATO-Ukraine military exercises on Russia’s doorstep; and yes, Putin escalated. This doesn’t mean that the former caused the latter, but the sequence of events leaves that possibility quite open. Läs artikel

Finland’s official accession to NATO is no direct threat to Russia, however, there is concern about the deployment of the alliance’s infrastructure and heavy weapons there, Russian Ambassador to Finland Pavel Kuznetsov told the Rossiya-24 television on Monday.

”Finland’s formal accession to NATO poses no serious threat to Russia’s security. However, there is concern that NATO may station its permanent military bases or heavy offensive weapons and missile defense systems in Finland. Russia will then have to take appropriate measures in response in order to ensure its security,” he warned.

The Russian diplomat said he expected Finland’s political and military leadership ”to understand only too well that developments like these would not be in Finland’s best interests.” However, he questioned if the Finns would be allowed to make independent decisions on their own security as a nation upon entry to NATO. Läs artikel

Delivering remarks following the Presidential Cabinet Meeting, President Erdoğan drew attention to Türkiye’s conditional approval to Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership, and said: “Let me reiterate that we will freeze the process if they do not take the necessary steps to fulfill our conditions.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered remarks at a press conference following the Presidential Cabinet Meeting at the Presidential Complex.

Touching upon his recent visit to Spain for the NATO Leaders Summit, President Erdoğan said Türkiye’s approaches towards regional and global crises were voiced at the highest level at the Summit which he underlined was held at an important period due to the Ukraine-Russia war, and added: “We displayed a quite open and clear stance that NATO’s expansion policies should be maintained in line with our country’s sensitivities. Once the conditions we had brought to the table for the start of Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership process were agreed, we shared our conditional approval with member countries.”

“Let me reiterate that we will freeze the process if they do not take the necessary steps to fulfill our conditions,” President Erdoğan underscored, and noted: “Sweden, in particular, has not been displaying a positive image on this issue. Our stance as Türkiye is crystal clear on this issue, the rest is up to them.”Läs artikel

Klartecken gavs för ytterligare 500 miljoner euro i vapenstöd till Ukraina vid EU-ländernas utrikesministermöte i Bryssel på måndagen. Där fick de närvarande också än en gång lyssna till sin ukrainske kollega Dmytro Kuleba, som deltog digitalt.

– Som väntat hade han en väldigt stark plädering för fortsatt stöd till Ukraina. Han talade naturligtvis om de fortsatta brotten som Ukraina utsätts för, senaste dagarnas terrorbombningar till exempel. Han förmedlade väldigt tydligt att Ukraina kommer att fortsätta att kämpa mot den här aggressionen – men man kan inte göra det ensamt, berättar kabinettssekreterare Robert Rydberg, som vikarierade för utrikesminister Ann Linde (S) vid mötet. Läs artikel

Bilderna på totalförstörda stridsvagnar från krigets Ukraina har fått en hel värld att fråga vad för vapen som ligger bakom. Svaret är Robot 57, eller NLAW (Next generation Light Anti-tank Weapon), som det internationella namnet lyder. […]

Robot 57 ser ut som ett mer bulligt pansarskott, men är en mycket mer avancerad konstruktion. Den kan avfyras av en enskild soldat och kastas bort efter användning, men där slutar likheterna.

Skytten som avfyrar vapnet kan ställa in på vilket avstånd robotens verkansdel ska armeras vid; 20 eller 100 meter. Det finns också två alternativ för hur banan roboten tar mot målet ska se ut. Det ena läget ger en bana rakt mot målet, det andra skickar iväg verkansdelen så att den slår in i målet uppifrån, vilket gör att den kan slå ut stridsvagnar som har tunnare pansar på ovansidan. Läs pressmeddelandee

In late April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused NATO of waging a “proxy” war against Russia by supporting Ukraine as it defended itself from a Kremlin invasion. “War means war,” he said ominously, implying that the Alliance is stoking Ukraine’s resistance to advance its own interests.

It is easy to dismiss Lavrov’s claim as another product of Kremlin myth-making, and in reality, Ukraine’s status as a proxy for the United States and NATO may be a matter of interpretation. Yet there is a kernel of truth to it: The Alliance is now engaged in a Cold War-style engagement with Moscow, in which both NATO and its Ukrainian partner risk pursuing their interests possibly at the unjust expense of each other.

That the United States’, much less NATO’s, military support for Kyiv raises ethical concerns is no surprise; states rarely provide military assistance to other parties unless their interests are also served. But even well-intentioned pursuits—in this case, helping a strategic ally beat back a stronger aggressor—can end poorly. Läs artikel

[…] The addition of Finland and Sweden serves to extend the power distribution of NATO’s northern flank. Although Finland and Sweden are wealthy countries with small-scale militaries, their military equipment cannot to be underestimated. The two countries are characterized by strong defense industrial capability. To be specific, Finland, as an integral part of the military-industrial complex composed of the US and over 10 other countries, has the ability to build an even stronger air defense pattern in Europe together with its NATO Allies. Sweden’s Gripen fighter series has performed well, and Sweden has professional experience in the Arctic and submarine fields, and can also help expand the strength of other US-led multilateral alliances.

Not only can the two countries bring modern, highly specialized military forces into NATO, but they can also achieve a win-win situation with the US. On the one hand, the US nuclear umbrella is highly attractive to the two countries. Even if the two countries get into a conflict with Russia, there is no need to worry about the threat of Russian nuclear weapons. At the same time, the frequent commitment to European security as made by the US has also made the two countries feel quite assured. On the other hand, while committed to providing security for Europe, the US also takes the principle of collective defense as its concept to stabilize Europe with the European security strategic partners, and ensure the US worry-free in entering other parts of the world.

As of now, the Finnish and Swedish troops have regularly participated in NATO exercises, featuring high interoperability to jointly deal with Russia. And also the US is free to deal with opponents even tougher. The accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO may indeed allow the US to be free to deal with other opponents; however, it is still a big question as to whether Europe can gain stability and whether Finland and Sweden can benefit from the move. Läs artikel

[…] Biden took to the pages of The Washington Post to justify the trip in advance and outline what he sees as his administration’s wins in the Middle East, which he called ”more stable and secure than the one [his] administration inherited 18 months ago.” One of his successes, Biden wrote, has been keeping American soldiers out of conflicts: ”Next week, I will be the first president to visit the Middle East since 9/11 without U.S. troops engaged in a combat mission there,” he said. ”It’s my aim to keep it that way.”

That’s true on some level. Biden announced the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan last April, stuck to his August 31 deadline, and ended America’s longest war. It was an overdue move and one that undoubtedly helped spare U.S. soldiers from bloody conflict down the line.

But the Middle East is far larger than just Afghanistan, and so is America’s involvement in the region. In truth, U.S. troops are engaged in all sorts of activities there—not all of them peaceful.

Biden himself sent a letter to Congress last month to keep lawmakers ”informed about deployments of United States Armed Forces equipped for combat.” He outlined a bevy of activities involving American soldiers across the Middle East (many of which sound a lot like U.S. troops engaged in combat missions). ”No United States Armed Forces are in Afghanistan,” Biden noted, but they are ”working by, with, and through local partners to conduct operations against ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria and against al-Qa’ida in Syria.” Some American soldiers remain ”in strategically significant locations in Syria to conduct operations” against terrorist threats there.

American military personnel are also ”deployed to Yemen to conduct operations against al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS.” Approximately 2,733 U.S. forces are present in Saudi Arabia, where they ”protect United States forces and interests in the region against hostile action by Iran and Iran-backed groups” and ”provide air and missile defense capabilities” to the kingdom. Nearly 3,000 American military personnel are in Jordan under the guise of helping to fight ISIS, and some are in Turkey doing the same. Läs artikel

EU har ikke længere råd til, at medlemslande kan beholde vetoretten over for udenrigs- og sikkerhedspolitik, Det duer ikke, hvis Europa skal bevare en ledende rolle i den globale politik.

Det mener Tysklands forbundskansler, Olaf Scholz.

Krigen i Ukraine har gjort spørgsmålet mere magtpåliggende, skriver han i en kommentar i avisen Frankfurter Allgemeine. Han siger, at det må være slut med, at enkelte stater ”egoistisk blokerer” for fælleseuropæiske beslutninger. En fælles politik skal gælde lige fra migrationspolitik til udviklingen af et fælles europæisk forsvar. For EU skal være en geopolitisk aktør på verdensscenen. Läs artikel