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NATO leaders meeting in Madrid issued a formal invitation to Finland and Sweden to become members, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted the two to end decades of military non-alignment and seek accession... Joining NATO marks a significant shift for both countries. Sweden would end more than 200 years of non-alignment, while Finland, which shares an 810 mile border with Russia, would end a policy of neutrality adopted as a Soviet-imposed condition of peace following World War Two. The process to finalize now requires ratification by all 30 current allies. That could take months, but the alliance stressed that “the...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has removed his objections to the applications for NATO membership submitted by Sweden and Finland, guaranteeing those two previously unaligned nations will join the West’s bulwark alliance against Russian aggression.In May, Sweden and Finland announced they would ask to become members of the NATO military alliance. This was an unprecedented step that even the threat of the USSR had not been able to accomplish (Finland Announces It Will Join NATO, Sweden to Follow, While Moscow Makes Its Usual Threats). Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine did accomplish what Joe Stalin couldn’t in no small...

Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (Blue and White) slammed the United Nations Security Council's rejection of the US proposal to extend the arms embargo on Iran. In a statement, Ashkenazi said: "The rejection of the US proposal by some members of the Security Council is a mistake that will undoubtedly lead to the Middle East’s deterioration, which must be stopped." "Israel condemns the decision of some members of the Security Council not to extend the arms embargo on Iran. We stress that the Security Council was established for the exact purpose of preventing regimes such as that of the Iranian Ayatollahs...

An EU naval mission in the Mediterranean has been authorized to start enforcing a UN arms embargo designed to choke off weapon supplies to extremists in Libya. The EU said ambassadors from the bloc’s 28 member countries also voted Tuesday for the EU’s maritime force, known as Operation Sophia, to begin training the Libyan coast guard and navy. …

Ahead of President Barack Obama’s first visit to Vietnam, the country voted Sunday in once-every-five-year-elections for a rubber-stamp parliament whose membership has already been largely determined by the Communist Party. Amid worries about soaring public debt, a serious budget deficit and China’s aggressive claims in nearby seas, there’s also high hope for Obama’s visit, both in the government, which wants him to lift an arms export embargo so it can better deal with Beijing, and among rights activists who want him to hold to account a repressive one-party state seen as treating its critics abysmally. […] Obama must balance a...

“When it was my turn, they took me blindfolded,” the thief said. “Suddenly I felt a pain in my right hand that was out of this world. My hand had just been chopped off.” This is Gao, once the seat of an empire, and then a glorified village, and now a city the size of Scranton under the boot of its Islamist conquerors. Gao has become a place where thieves have their hands cut off, where women are forced to wear the stifling Hijab in 113 degree heat or be lashed and where unmarried couples are stoned to death. Borders...

After more than 40 years, France has ended its ban on weapons trade with Israel. Paris has decided to purchase the Heron TP (Eitan) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Israel Aerospace Industries. With a wingspan just about as wide as a Boeing 737 (26 meters), the Eitan flies up to an altitude of 40,000 feet and can remain airborne for up to 36 hours. The drone is able to carry a wide variety of equipment with which to conduct its reconnaissance missions due to its size – possibly even missiles. The Eitan went into service in Israel approximately 18 months...

The European Union announced on Monday that it would be imposing an arms embargo on Syria, The Associated Press reported. In a statement, the EU said that it is banning shipments to Syria of “arms and equipment that could be used for internal repression.” The statement also noted that the EU will be prohibiting 13 Syrian “officials and associates of the Syrian regime” from traveling anywhere within the EU and would be freezing their assets. The 13 have been identified as being responsible for the violent repression against the civilian protests in the country. While the names of the officials...

The U.S. warned Syria on Thursday to abide by a United Nations arms embargo meant to stop Hezbollah from resupplying after its monthlong war with Israel. It dismissed Syrian objections to international peacekeepers as preposterous. "All countries must obey the arms embargo" under the U.N. Security Council resolution that set a cease-fire this month, said State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos. "It is a singular duty for Syria, as the one country apart from Israel that borders Lebanon, to do so."

 Tiananmen inmates linked to EU arms embargo Jonathan Watts in BeijingThursday May 12, 2005The Guardian China should release those of its citizens imprisoned since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown if it wants the European Union to end its arms ban, a senior EU delegation told their hosts in Beijing yesterday. The request for an amnesty, one of four areas in which the EU is seeking better human rights, raises the bar for lifting the 16-year embargo, making a change unlikely this year. The linkage is embarrassing for Beijing's communist leaders, who sees removal of the "discriminatory" ban as a central...

In recent months, relations between the United States and France have improved, highlighted by events in Lebanon, where both countries have worked together to force Syria to remove its occupation army. But France runs the risk of negating its improved ties with Washington through its support of Beijing's anti-secession law, which gives it the right to attack the democratic nation of Taiwan if it declares independence from China. Paris' campaign to court Beijing continued last week, when French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin began a three-day visit to China by expressing support for the anti-secession law, terming it "completely compatible with...

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhuanet) -- China and France reached a three-billion-euro deal Thursday morning during French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's three-day official visit to Beijing. Raffarin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao witnessed the signing ceremony of the 20 cooperative agreements, which deal with aviation, nuclear energy and agriculture. As part of the agreements, China promised to buy 30 Airbus planes, including five Airbus A380 and 25 A320 planes. Prior to the signing ceremony, Wen and Raffarin held hour-long talks, agreeing to further political and economic ties. Wen said both China and France are putting the bilateral ties in an prominent...

t is hard to imagine what China's leaders figured they had to gain by pushing through a law authorizing an attack on Taiwan if it moves toward formal independence. Beijing has been threatening such an attack for years, and the Communist Party's all-powerful leaders hardly need to get their toothless legislature's permission if they ever decide to plunge ahead with such lunacy.But it is easy enough to see what damage this gambit has already done to China's international reputation and objectives. By reminding the world that Beijing seriously thinks about launching a shooting war across the Taiwan Strait that could...

France, don't mess up Asia: Japan AFP , TOKYO Saturday, Mar 26, 2005,Page 1 "The United States and Japan share the awareness that resuming arms exports would be a big problem." Hiroyuki Hosoda, Japan's chief cabinet secretary Japan, on the eve of a visit by French President Jacques Chirac, said yesterday that the lifting of the EU arms embargo on China being pushed by France would be a "big problem" for Asian stability. "Considering stability in Asia, the United States and Japan share the awareness that resuming arms exports would be a big problem," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, the...

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan, on the eve of a visit by French President Jacques Chirac, said the lifting of the EU arms embargo on China being pushed by France would be a "big problem" for Asian stability. "Considering stability in Asia, the United States and Japan share the awareness that resuming arms exports would be a big problem," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, the Japanese government spokesman, told reporters. Hosoda said the issue of the arms embargo would likely be on the agenda when Chirac meets Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Sunday. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news -...

Bush wins big as China overplays its hand By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON - The apparent decision by European leaders to delay the lifting of their 16-year-old arms embargo on China beyond June marks a clear-cut foreign-policy victory for US President George W Bush, who made the issue a major priority in his visit to Europe last month. China itself may have inadvertently made Bush's victory possible. Its enactment last week of an Anti-Secession Law that lays the foundation for a possible military attack on Taiwan if, in Beijing's judgment, it were to move toward formal independence, gave the administration powerful...

EU arms embargo against China slides into chaos By David Rennie in Brussels (Filed: 23/03/2005) The European Union's fragile consensus on lifting its arms embargo on China was crumbling last night as Tony Blair arrived for a summit in Brussels. Lifting the ban, an initiative spearheaded by France and Germany, appeared certain only weeks ago. However, the proposal to end the arms freeze provoked a furious reaction from America and warnings from the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, that allies "should do nothing" to alter the balance of power in Asia. American anger, and apparent British second thoughts, were...

SEOUL (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said European weapons technology should not be used by China to expand its military as she again warned against the lifting of an EU arms embargo to the communist country. At a joint news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, Rice said the European Union "should do nothing to contribute to a circumstance in which Chinese military modernization draws on European technology..." -snip- Rice also said the United States would maintain its armed forces in the Asia-Pacific region to safeguard the current balance of military power. "The United States...

Morning Edition, March 14, 2005 · China passes a law that would authorize military force to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence. This move intensifies worries among members of the U.S. Congress as the EU considers lifting an arms embargo against Beijing. An EU delegation arrives in Washington to discuss the issue. Related NPR Stories

<p>Europe has angered the United States with talk of canceling its arms embargo against China - but governments and companies on the continent have for years delivered weapons and other equipment to Beijing and its rapidly modernizing People's Liberation Army.</p>