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Stories related to defence, strategy and cooperation. 

Hungarian Parliament approves Finland NATO membership
Over 10 months after Finland applied to join the NATO military alliance, the Hungarian Parliament has ratified Finland's application to the currently 30-member bloc in a vote on Monday (27 March). The vote was passed by 182 votes for and only 6 votes against. In order to become a NATO member, an applicant country must be approved by every member state individually, and following Hungary's approval yesterday only one country remains, Turkey. Turkey's approval of Finland's application to NATO is indeed expected soon as the country after the country's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs approved their application last week. A parliamentary vote on accession is expected before the country's presidential elections on 14 May. Yesterday's vote comes after months of delay in both Budapest and Ankara over Finland and Sweden's NATO membership prospects. While Hungarian officials had spent months insisting that they simply busy with other business, at the end of last month the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán threatened to throw a spanner in the works over Finland and Sweden's history of open criticism of rule-of-law in Hungary.
patrickn97 Tue, 03/28/2023 - 09:14 Kyrgyzstan to host CSTO defence bloc drills

Anatoly Sidorov, the Chief of Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has announced that Kyrgyzstan has volunteered to host the "Indestructible Brotherhood" drills later this year. A date for the drills was not given.

Speaking in a press briefing on Tuesday (14 February), Sidorov said, "the CSTO Indestructible Brotherhood drill is planned on the territory of Kyrgyzstan, where tasks of post-conflict regulation in crisis zone, peacekeeping operations will be practiced."

patrickn97 Tue, 02/14/2023 - 10:59

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‘Hard versus Soft Power: Is it time for an EU army?’

‘Hard versus Soft Power: Is it time for an EU army?’

LINKS Europe in collaboration with The City of The Hague, and with the support of The Hague Humanity Hub, hosted the fifth in a series of clusters of events titled ‘Conversations on the future of Europe in the world’ on Thursday, 3 February 2022. The event was hosted online from the LINKS Europe office in the The Hague, and around 50 participants joined. The series ‘Conversations on the future of Europe in the world’ contributes to the debate in the framework of the EU’s ‘Conference on the future of Europe’ process.
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News
Task Force Takuba, the EU's mission in the Sahel, is not going according to plan

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The foreign ministers of Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad failed to agree on the terms for a joint ministerial summit with the European Union and have instead chosen to hold bilateral talks with EU High Representative Josep Borrel. The cancellation followed a series of coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, which has put into question the main European military tool in the Sahel region, the Takuba force. Task Force Takuba was created with much fanfare, and after a lot of French insistence, in March 2020 to help Mali and its neighbours in the West African Sahel fight militants linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, who have taken over large parts of their territory. 
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NATO tells Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine

NATO tells Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine

NATO has called on Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova where they are deployed without the consent of these countries. The call came as part of a western response to Russian sabre-rattling and attempts to assert the Kremlin's hegemonic control over its neighbouring countries, and amid fears of an imminent Russian military incursion in Ukraine