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Focus Point: Regional Security- Transatlantic Security/NATO
NATO parliamentarians working to keep the Alliance strong | NATO
By NATO | 26.11.2024
Members of NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly (NPA) gathered in Montreal to discuss key challenges to Alliance security and NATO’s essential role in addressing them. On Monday (25 November 2024), the NATO Secretary General addressed the NPA’s 70th Annual Session via video message and NATO’s acting Deputy Secretary General, Boris Ruge, addressed the NPA in person.
The Secretary General underlined the NPA’s crucial role in strengthening NATO’s defences, supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, and addressing global challenges to Euro-Atlantic security, including through cooperation with partners.
Mr Rutte reiterated NATO’s commitment to strengthening deterrence and defence in a more dangerous and competitive world. “Allies are spending more on defence,” he said, adding that “we must make our deterrence and defence even stronger. The more we spend on defence, the more we reduce the risk of future conflict”. He urged lawmakers to support this investment, highlighting that “we have a duty to ensure we protect our nations, people and values, and security does not come for free.” Read more…
Focus Point: Security and Defense Policy- Russia-Ukraine War
Where does the EU stand on trading goods with Russia? | Euronews
By Inês Trindade Pereira | 27.11.2024
The EU has imposed various import and export restrictions on several products, leading to a 58% decline in exports to Russia and an 86% drop in imports from Russia between the first quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2024, particularly for nickel and petroleum oil.
To compensate, the EU sourced nickel from other countries, including the US, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
Also, imports of petroleum oil were increasingly replaced by supplies from the US, Kazakhstan, Norway, and Saudi Arabia.
While the EU has worked to expand the Southern Gas Corridor to bring in energy from other sources, reports suggest that Russia has still found ways to reach the EU market.
In a Chatham House analysis, researcher Armida van Rij stated that “Russian gas is being laundered through Azerbaijan and Turkey to meet continued high European demands.”
According to the report, EU President Ursula von der Leyen has struck gas import deals with Azerbaijan, despite parts of the infrastructure for transporting this gas being owned by Lukoil, a Russian energy company under US sanctions.
However, the European Commission denies that the deals with Azerbaijan are creating a back door for more Russian gas to enter the continent indirectly. Read more…
Focus Point: Security and Defense Policy- Great Power Competition
EU to blacklist China alongside Russia, in Ukraine war milestone | EUObserver
By Andrew Rettman | 27.11.2024 | Subscription needed
The first-ever Chinese names are set to join Russians on the EU’s Ukraine war blacklist, in a marker of the conflict’s geopolitical creep.
A Chinese businesswoman and four Chinese firms are to be placed under a full EU visa ban and asset freeze, according to a draft list seen by EUobserver on Tuesday (26 November). Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security- Transatlantic Security/NATO
NATO Secretary General to the Atlantic Future Forum: “a transatlantic future is the only way to ensure our freedom and security” | NATO
By NATO | 27.11.2024
On Tuesday (26 November 2024), NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte addressed the sixth edition of the Atlantic Future Forum via video message. He outlined NATO’s three main priorities in the run up to next Summit in The Hague: strengthening collective defence, stepping up support to Ukraine, and deepening partnerships.
China, Iran and North Korea’s destabilising actions have far-reaching implications.
“Russia’s aggression is not contained to Ukraine. China, Iran and North Korea’s destabilising actions have far-reaching implications. When aggressors are emboldened it threatens us all, no matter how large or small,” the Secretary General said. “There is strength in numbers and value in building on a strong foundation, which is why we must continue to invest in NATO. A transatlantic future is the only way to ensure our freedom and security,” he concluded. Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security- Middle East
What we know about Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal | BBC
A ceasefire deal to end 13 months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has taken effect.
The US and France said the agreement would “cease the fighting in Lebanon, and secure Israel from the threat of Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations operating from Lebanon”.
Hezbollah has been given 60 days to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon while Israeli forces must withdraw from the area over the same period.
This is what we know about the ceasefire from the agreement itself and official briefings.
The 13-point agreement between the governments of Israel and Lebanon - and not Hezbollah – also says both countries are “prepared to take steps to promote conditions for a permanent and comprehensive solution”.
It states that the Lebanese government will “prevent Hezbollah and all other armed groups in the territory of Lebanon from carrying out any operations against Israel”.
Israel, meanwhile, will “not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, including civilian, military, or other state targets, in the territory of Lebanon”.
The basis of the deal, it notes, is the “full implementation, without violation” of UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last war in 2006. Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security- Transatlantic Security/NATO
NATO delegation takes part in ninth round of military-to-military staff talks with the African Union | NATO
By NATO | 28.11.2024
From 26 to 27 November 2024, NATO’s Cooperative Security Division of the International Military Staff (IMS) met with a delegation from the African Union Commission (AUC) in Brussels for the ninth iteration of NATO and African Union (AU) Military-to-Military Staff Talks.
Discussions centred on:
- security challenges in AU Peace Support Operations;
- NATO support to AU military standardization and lessons learned processes;
- capacity building, including education and training;
- disaster preparedness capacity in AUC;
- NATO-AU participation in each other’s exercises;
- and NATO support for the AUC development of policies.
The Director of NATO’s Cooperative Security Division of the IMS, Major General Dacian Tiberiu Șerban, officially opened the meeting and welcomed the Head of the African Union’s Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department, Peace Support Operations Division, Brigadier General Cheick Fanta Mady Dembele, and his staff to the Staff Talks. He emphasised that “in an increasingly complex global security landscape, marked by ongoing conflicts and crises, international cooperation is more crucial than ever”. Major General Serban also highlighted that “NATO-AU cooperation offers a unique opportunity to address these challenges through shared expertise and commitment to peace, security, and mutual prosperity”. The NATO Summit in Washington last July reaffirmed the importance of this partnership and endorsed an Action Plan to strengthen NATO engagement in the Southern Neighbourhood.
Brigadier General Dembele thanked NATO for the warm welcome and stressed the importance of recognising that no single crisis is confined to a single country. The General underlined that the current paradigm “African solutions to African problems” should be changed as they are “African solutions to peace and security challenges in Africa”. Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security- Transatlantic Security/NATO
The European Union Military Staff hosts its NATO counterparts for the 22nd EUMS-IMS Directors General Conference | NATO
By NATO | 29.11.2024
On 29 November 2024, the Director General of the European Union Military Staff (DGEUMS), Lieutenant General Michiel van der Lann welcomed the Director General of the NATO International Military Staff (DGIMS), Lieutenant General Janusz Adamczak and his team to the EEAS Schuman Building for the 22nd iteration of the bi-annual EUMS-IMS Directors’ General Conference.
Following both Directors’ opening remarks, the EUMS Deputy Director General, Major General Gabor Horvath, introduced the agenda for the meeting and guided the participants through the sequence of the conference which included follow on tasks form the previous conference held in May 2024. The agenda points also included discussions on; the Development of Education, Training and Exercise plans, Informal Defence Capability and Conceptual Cooperation Plan, Cooperation in Military Logistics, CIS Interoperability, cooperation on Cyber Defence, Protection of Civilians and Gender Perspective and guidance on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security- Middle East
Syrian rebels sweep into Aleppo, Russia conducts strikes in support of Assad | Reuters
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi | 01.12.2024
Summary
- Aleppo assault is biggest challenge to Assad in years
- Russia conducts strikes in support of Syrian army
- US blames Syria’s refusal to engage in political process
- Russian, Turkish ministers discuss situation
- Rebels say they control Aleppo airport
The Syrian army said on Saturday dozens of its soldiers had been killed in a major attack led by Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels who swept into the city of Aleppo, forcing the army to redeploy in the biggest challenge to President Bashar al-Assad in years.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air force had carried out strikes on Syrian rebels in support of the country’s army, Russian news agencies reported. The strikes followed what was the boldest rebel assault for years in a civil war where front lines had largely been frozen since 2020.
The fighting revives the long-simmering Syrian conflict as the wider region is roiled by wars in Gaza and Lebanon, where a truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday.
With Assad backed by Russia and Iran, and Turkey supporting some of the rebels in the northwest where it maintains troops, the offensive has brought into focus the conflict’s knotted geopolitics. Fighting in the northwest had largely abated since Turkey and Russia reached a de-escalation agreement in 2020.
Two Syrian military sources said Russia has promised Damascus extra military aid that would start arriving in the next 72 hours.
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which spearhead the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces that control much of northeastern and eastern Syria and have long had a foothold in Aleppo, widened their control in the city as government troops left, a senior YPG source said.
Mustafa Abdul Jaber, a commander in the Jaish al-Izza rebel brigade, said the rebels’ speedy advance had been helped by a lack of Iran-backed manpower to support the government in the broader Aleppo province.
Iran’s regional allies have suffered a series of blows at the hands of Israel as the Gaza war has expanded through the Middle East.
The opposition fighters have said the campaign was in response to stepped-up strikes in recent weeks against civilians by the Russian and Syrian air forces on areas of Idlib province, and to preempt any attacks by the Syrian army. Read more…
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The NAVI Research Institute is the research division of NATO Veterans Initiative - NAVI that provides a unique perspective to transatlantic leaders and societies on peace and security through the lens of NATO's founding principles of rule of law, democracy, human rights, and individual liberties. The NAVI Research Institute was officially established by the NAVI Board on July 16th, 2023.
