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Defense ministers from NATO countries agreed on Wednesday to a plan that would see the military alliance strengthened in Eastern European countries feeling at risk of aggression from Russia. The "enhanced forward presence in the eastern part of our Alliance," as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg put it, is designed to "make clear that an attack against one ally is an attack against all allies, and that the alliance as a whole will respond." ...

The United States is scrutinizing developments in Poland, the U.S. trade czar said on Sunday when asked if Washington was concerned about the European Union's rule of law inquiry into Poland and Standard and Poor's cut to Warsaw's credit rating. "As a fellow democracy we do follow developments here very closely," U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told reporters during his visit to Google Campus in Warsaw. "We certainly do follow it. As a democracy, we want to make sure that Poland's democracy continues to address the issues."

BRUSSELS - NATO is flatly dismissing a claim by Russia that its actions and expansion constitute a menace for Russia's security. Alliance spokesperson Oana Lungescu said Tuesday that NATO is still studying Russia's new security doctrine, approved last week. "That said," Lungescu added, "we categorically reject totally unfounded claims that NATO and its policies constitute a security threat" for Moscow.

urkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday condemned an attack on the rebel-held Syrian city of Idlib, believed to have been carried out by Russian jets, and said Syria will not be part of "Russian imperialist goals". Relations between Ankara and Moscow are already at their worst in recent memory after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane over Syria last month. This weekend's air strikes killed scores of people in the center of Idlib in northwest Syria on Sunday, rescue workers and residents said. Turkey, which has long called for the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and supports the...

Republican US presidential front-runner Donald Trump is apparently "honored" that Russian President Vladimir Putin considers the real-estate magnate a "flamboyant" and "very talented" man. "It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond," Trump said in a statement, according to Politico. He continued: "I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect." (full article at...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Russia to try and narrow gaps with Russian leaders over a political transition to end Syria's civil war and restore stability in eastern Ukraine. [...] The trip is Kerry's second to Russia this year - he met with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in May - but his first since frosty relations over Ukraine were exacerbated by Moscow's intervention in Syria in late September. President Barack Obama has seen Putin briefly twice since then at international summits in Turkey and France. ...