Germany

Germany pledges €110 million to boost NATO battalion infrastructure in Lithuania

Germany will invest €110 million (US$127 million) in military infrastructure in Lithuania until 2021, its defense minister said on a Monday, February 4 a visit to mark two years since NATO installed battalions in the Baltic region to ward off Russia. In 2017, NATO deployed four multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic states as a counter against possible Russian action following its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Germany leads the NATO battalion in Lithuania comprising 1,200 troops from 10 countries. “We’re going to invest in the long-term engagement,” Ursula von der Leyen told reporters, adding that Berlin would invest in “common barracks and training fields” in Lithuania until 2021. Lithuania’s defense minister Raimundas Karoblis hailed Germany’s spending plans as evidence of commitment to the NATO deployment. “We have heard very officially, very clearly at the political level … that Germany is for the long run here and will stay here as long as the security situation will demand it,” Karoblis said. The other three NATO battalions deployed in 2017 are based in Estonia, Latvia and Poland and are led by the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, respectively. The three Baltic states, with a combined population of …

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Raytheon awarded $57 million for Evolved SeaSparrow Missile production requirements

Raytheon was awarded two contracts for for long lead material for the production of Evolved SeaSparrow Missiles, the U.S. Department of Defense said

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Ukraine president Poroshenko asks NATO to send warships to Sea of Azov

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked NATO members to send naval vessels to the Sea of Azov to back his country in the standoff with Russia

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Defense ministers from 9 countries meet to plan European rapid deployment force

Defense ministers from nine European countries meet to set out plans for the European Intervention Initiative, a joint force that could rapidly be deployed in response to a conflict or natural disaster

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Syria summit: Erdogan to host Putin, Merkel and Macron on October 27

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host a Syria summit with the leaders of Russia, Germany and France on October 27

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YPG announces arrest of 3 ISIS foreign fighters in northern Syria

The YPG announced the arrest of three men it said were foreign fighters with ISIS, including Canadian recruiter Muhammad Ali, a German man and a Turkish national

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Iran diplomat extradited to Belgium from Germany over MEK bomb plot in France

An Iranian diplomat linked to an alleged bomb plot against an Iranian opposition rally in France has been extradited to Belgium from Germany, prosecutors said

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German police arrest 6 suspected far-right terrorists planning October 3 assault

German police arrested six men on suspicion of belonging to a far-right terrorist group that attacked foreigners in the city of Chemnitz

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Iraq court clears German-Turkish woman of ISIS ties

An Iraqi judge on Wednesday cleared a German-Turkish woman of having ties to Islamic State, more than a year after she was detained

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Iraq sentences German woman and French man to life for ISIS membership

An Iraqi court sentenced a German woman and French man both to life in prison terms for joining ISIS

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