Estonians are becoming more vocal about the NATO air-policing mission on the Baltic States. It is official form now on – it would like to share the air-policing mission with Lithuania, which is currently carried out from Aviation Base in Siauliai.

An extraordinary summit of EU heads of state and governments in November will focus on the European Union budget for 2014-2020, it emerged following a meeting of European Affairs ministers held in Nicosia yesterday (30 August).

The European Commission plans to give the European Central Bank (ECB) oversight of all banks in the eurozone from 2014, said Michel Barnier, in charge of the internal market at the EU executive.

But the mood has since changed and serious plans are underway to create – if not a full political union – then something close to it.

Head of Georgian representation in NATO Nugzar Mgaloblishvili informed the commission about the situation in Dagestan section of the Georgian-Russian border.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was right when he called Russia America's "No. 1 geopolitical foe".

Sweden has sent a formal invitation for Lithuania to join the Sweden-led EU Nordic Battlegroup in the first half of 2015.

France will not use a $1.2 billion contract to build Mistral class amphibious assault ships for the Russian Navy to put pressure on Moscow over the Syrian issue, the country’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

François Hollande has insisted that the European Union needed more solidarity and a system for debt mutualisation, a position which fell foul of Germany’s insistence that this should only happen after countries agree to greater fiscal oversight.

The United States urged African nations to pool their air force assets in a NATO-style effort to take on terrorists and international criminals rather than struggle to fund costly independent operations.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Tuesday (28 August) said his government has not yet taken a decision on asking for European help in refinancing its debt, pending a key meeting of the European Central Bank next week.

President Vladimir Putin said he was open to the idea of new nuclear arms cuts on a reciprocal basis if the United States addresses his concerns about a U.S.-led missile defense system in Europe.

Conservatives have made rebuilding the military, more international involvement and a more muscular presence in the North key policy touchstones.

NATO has closed more than 200 bases in Afghanistan and transferred nearly 300 others to local forces, a concrete step toward its 2014 target of handing over security responsibility, NATO officers said Sunday.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has appointed Norwegian diplomat Mari Skåre as his Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security.

Central bank financing can be “addictive like a drug”, the president of the Bundesbank has warned, in comments that emphasize the dangerous gulf between Germany and the European Central Bank.

Angela Merkel wants an EU 'convention' to draw up a new treaty for closer European political unification and help overcome the bloc's sovereign debt crisis, the weekly Der Spiegel reported on Sunday (26 August).

The left-wing Socialist party is expected to seize the largest gains in September's Dutch elections, threatening to deprive German Chancellor Angela Merkel of one of her closest allies in response to the eurozone debt crisis.

French president says Greece 'must stay' in the eurozone following talks with the country's prime minister, but stressed Greece needed to prove its commitment to economic reform.

The Finnish defense ministry said on its website on Friday that “a Russian military plane is suspected of violating the airspace of Finland in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland on the evening of August 23, 2012.”

The U.S. is planning a major expansion of missile defenses in Asia, a move American officials say is designed to contain threats from North Korea, but one that could also be used to counter China's military.

Samaras kicked off a European charm offensive on 22 August with talks to persuade eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker that the debt-laden nation has the will to ram through unpopular reforms and deserves more time to do it.

The Northern Eagle 2012 naval exercise will be held in four districts in the Norwegian and Barents Seas, and will end on 25 August putting in at Severomorsk.

Angela Merkel is backing Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann in his hard-line stance against further ECB intervention on the bond markets, rather than Germany’s ECB Executive Board Member Jörg Asmussen.

Poland’s recently expressed interest in acquiring an independent capability to counter theater-level missile attacks has much to do with insecurities over whether the United States can reliably be counted on to defend Polish interests.

Socialist leader Emile Roemer, who some polls show on course to become the next prime minister, said Friday the Netherlands would refuse to pay a penalty to the European Union if its budget deficit exceeded 3% of GDP, breaking EU rules.

Germany’s director at the European Central Bank has thrown his weight behind mass purchases of Spanish and Italian debt to prevent the disintegration of the euro, marking a crucial turning point in the eurozone debt crisis.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency awarded Raytheon a $925 million contract for continued work on the advanced Standard Missile-3 Block IIA missile used by the American and Japanese navies to destroy short- to intermediate- range ballistic missiles.

Finland's foreign minister has said his government does not want the euro to break up, but that officials have to be prepared "for any eventuality."

Poland's defence minister said that the new French government is interested in cooperation in the so-called “Polish shield” element of the US-led anti-ballistic missile project in Europe.

The eurozone will slip into recession and won't grow until 2013, according a poll of economists who also don't expect any new aggressive policy response from the European Central Bank.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is next week meeting top EU leaders in a bid to negotiate a two-year deadline extension of the current bailout terms due to the worsening recession.

Poland plans to buy around 30 UCAVs by 2018 to form three squadrons.

Eurozone economies continue to go separate ways, with overall recession of 0.2 percent, while Germany's economy is still growing by 0.3 percent, according to the latest Eurostat data.

A prominent Romanian opposition MEP warned on 12 August of a looming ‘civil war’ in Romania as the conflict between the leftist ruling coalition and the centre-right president reached new heights, prompting fresh reactions from the EU.

Greece plunged deeper into recession official figures showed raising tension over the ?3.1bn (£2.4) Athens needs to raise on the bondmarkets today to avoid defaulting on debt due on Monday.

Seventeen NATO countries have confirmed participation in an extensive air force exercise to be held in the Czech Republic in September, the sole such event the Alliance holds this year.

Poland wants to cooperate with France and Germany on the establishment of its own missile defense system, Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said.

Three years into the eurozone debt crisis, the gravity-defying German economy has stalled and some fear it could fall into recession in the second half of this year.

Finland's prime minister on 10 August proposed a banking sector-funded European crisis fund to recapitalise troubled banks as part of Europe's plans for a banking union to tighten supervision.

The head of the EU commission on Friday (10 August) sent a harsh letter to Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, urging him to stop political infighting and ensure that top judges can do their work without threats.

Former senator Jim Talent is widely regarded as the top choice for defense secretary in a potential Romney administration.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak confirmed that President Barack Obama recently received a new National Intelligence Estimate report on the Iranian nuclear program, and said that the report has raised the urgency of the issue.

The European Central Bank should not buy Spanish and Italian debt because it "makes no sense" and will take away the pressure on politicians to act, Belgium's central bank governor has said.

Czech outgoing ambassador to NATO Martin Povejsil and his successor Jiri Sedivy emphatically warned against continued decreasing military expenditures in the Czech Republic and other NATO countries, in an interview with CTK.

The North Atlantic Council has approved the nomination by the President of the French Republic of Air Force General Jean-Paul Paloméros as Supreme Allied Commander Transformation.

The prospect of Britain leaving the European Union is increasingly likely according to a leaked strategy paper by banking giant Nomura.

Four years after a war which shocked Europe, Georgia's EU ambassador has said that Russia is becoming "more dangerous."

Munich does, to a great extent, explain the peculiarities of the Czech avatar of Atlanticism, a sentiment shared by Central and East Europeans.

The political crisis in Romania is to drag on until 12 September at least after judges on Thursday (2 August) postponed their decision on the validity of last weekend's referendum.

ECB on Thursday (2 August) said it "may" intervene on the markets to buy bonds to help Spain and Italy lower their borrowing costs, but only if governments first sign reform pledges with the eurozone's bailout fund - a German demand.

With NATO-led coalition looking to exit the Central Asian hotspot in 2014, President Vladimir Putin said the international forces should stay in Afghanistan until their job is finished.

The European Stability Mechanism rescue fund will eventually be granted a banking licence, giving it enough fire power to head off the bloc's debt crisis, Mario Monti said щт 1 August, on the eve of a crunch meeting of the ECB council today.

Francois Hollande, the French president, was the latest to pledge eurozone leaders would do “everything possible” to save the euro today following a meeting with Mario Monti, the Italian prime minister.

From diplomacy and trade to defense and human rights, Republicans would summon the will, the wisdom, and the national confidence to lead more actively in the world -- not from behind, but from the front.

Either Israel is engaged in the most elaborate ruse since the Trojan horse or it is on the cusp of a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

If the looming global oil crunch has been postponed for another decade or two as widely alleged, this is far from obvious in today’s commodity markets.

EU leaders may soon have to choose between keeping the euro and maintaining democracy.

For all these reasons, however, this may well be the moment to begin to take action to limit the risk of war as much as possible. To be specific, there are three actions the United States could take.

The former Massachusetts governor pledged to the party gathering in Florida that he would “restore the promise of America” by replacing Barack Obama's hollow message of “hope and change” with job-creation and economic competence.

Europe's politicial and economic leaders clashed today over debt crisis resolutions, underscoring the sense of chaos and disunity between Brussels and the key eurozone economies.

Greece has “one last chance” to meet its bail-out conditions, according to Jean Claude Juncker in comments that crushed hopes for an imminent change of strategy for Athens and the eurozone.

Eurozone leaders will this week begin a round of shuttle diplomacy focussed on debt-stricken Greece amid reports that Athens' deficit problems are greater than previously thought.

German eurosceptics quietly hope that Finland will become the first creditor state to storm out of monetary union in disgust, opening the way for others to break free.

Ukraine has selected ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell to develop its Skifska hydrocarbon field in the Black Sea, choosing the American and Dutch companies over Russia's Lukoil for the ?8.15-billion project.

Finland is preparing for the break-up of the eurozone, the country’s foreign minister warned.

Today, at a time of financial crisis and reductions in defence budgets, it is more important that ever for the two organizations to strengthen cooperation, spend more intelligently, and improve the complementarity of their defence capabilities.

Much of the debt will have to be written off. Whether this done by inflation (1945-1952) or default (1930-1934) will be the great political battle of this decade. Pick your side. Pick your history.

Mitt Romney announced Saturday he's selected Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his vice presidential running mate.

The European Central Bank disappointed markets as it said yesterday (2 August) that it is prepared to buy Italian and Spanish bonds on the open market but only after eurozone governments have activated bailout funds to do the same.

Italy’s leader Mario Monti is to make a last-ditch effort tomorrow to persuade Spain to swallow its pride and accept a formal rescue, hoping to clear the way for double-barrelled action by bail-out funds and the European Central Bank.