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Added on the 23/09/2018 11:42:26 - Copyright : Wochit
NATO defence ministers meet in Brussels over the war in Ukraine. NATO allies have refused to back a Polish call for the alliance to send an armed peace mission to Ukraine, but have vowed to keep supplying arms despite threats from Moscow. IMAGES
Kabul, May 19 (EFE/EPA).- Pakistan is emerging as a possible arbiter of Kabul's fate amid fragile peace talks, the specter of a new civil war, and looming uncertainty over Afghanistan's future following the withdrawal of the United States and NATO forces.On Sep.11, the US and NATO troops will conclude their pullout from the Afghan soil after 20 years, leading to fears of a new civil war between the Afghan government and the Taliban, a traditional ally of Islamabad.In the 1990s, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan with Pakistan's support. Since the fall of the Islamist regime in 2001, Washington and Kabul have repeatedly accused Islamabad of supporting the insurgents. (Camera: ARCHIVE).ARCHIVE FOOTAGE OF ATTACKS IN AFGHANISTAN.
Sweden joining NATO shows Russian President Vladimir Putin "failed" in his Ukrainian war strategy of weakening the alliance, its chief Jens Stoltenberg says. The Kremlin's invasion not only prompted formerly non-aligned nations Sweden and Finland to come under NATO's defence umbrella, but now "Ukraine is closer to NATO membership than ever before," Stoltenberg adds. SOUNDBITE
NATO forces cross the Vistula River at Korzeniewo in Poland as part of the US-led defence alliance's Exercise Dragon 24, involving around 4,500 soldiers and almost 1,000 vehicles. Dragon 24 is itself part of Exercise Steadfast Defender 24, NATO's largest military exercise since the Cold War, which is designed to test its defences in the face of Russia's war on Ukraine. IMAGES
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk welcomes his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau in the Polish capital Warsaw. During an earlier visit to Kyiv on the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine, Trudeau appeared to accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of assassinating his political opponent Alexei Navalny. IMAGES
A meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization kicks off in Brussels, with the US-led defence alliance's foreign ministers set to discuss NATO's ongoing backing for Ukraine against Russia amid doubts over US support and a bloody stalemate on the ground. There are fears that a lack of adequate support from the West -- at a time that it is distracted by the Israel-Hamas war -- could end up forcing Kyiv to seek a compromise with Russian President Vladimir Putin from a position of weakness. IMAGES
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Friday welcomed a peace mission by African leaders to Ukraine, but warned only a "just" solution that treats Russia as the aggressor would work. Stoltenberg was speaking to the media after a meeting of NATO ministers. SOUNDBITE
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls the invasion of Ukraine a "strategic failure" for Russia, pointing to Western unity and Moscow's losses. Russian President Vladimir "Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine has been a strategic failure -- greatly diminishing Russia's power, its interests and its influence for years to come," Blinken says in a speech in Helsinki. SOUNDBITE