30 January 2015
On 27 January, 28 EU leaders, including heads of state and foreign ministers, issued a joint statement in response to the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in Eastern Ukraine. (more…)
Source: The Wall Street Journal | EU Foreign Ministers Extend Targeted Sanctions on Russia
Source: The Economic Times | EU leaders threaten new Russia sanctions over Ukraine
18 November 2014
Although not a topic for the board meetings, Russia’s actions in the Ukraine spilled over into the annual G20 meeting held in Australia this year. President Obama came close to calling Russian intervention in the Ukraine an ‘invasion’ stating that they are “very firm on the need to uphold core international principles, and one of those principles is you don’t invade other countries or finance proxies and support them in ways that break up a country that has mechanisms for democratic elections.” (more…)
Source: The New York Times | Obama Says Russia’s Arming of Separatists Breaks Pact With Ukraine
7 October 2014
An analysis conducted by Conflict Armament Research, a London-based organisation that is collecting evidence of weaponry used by the Islamic State, has recently uncovered 21 nations as sources of ISIS’s ammunition- with more than 80 percent of the ammunition having been manufactured in the USA, China, the Former Soviet Union, post-Soviet Russia and Serbia. A small sample of cartridges, including ammunition manufactured as recently as 2013, was found to be of Iranian origins. (more…)
Source: The New York Times | ISIS’ Ammunition Is Shown to Have Origins in U.S. and China
17 September 2014
President Obama urged world powers to accelerate the global response to the Ebola outbreak that is ravaging West Africa, warning that unless health care workers, medical equipment and treatment centers were swiftly deployed, the disease could take hundreds of thousands of lives. Mr. Obama said at a meeting with doctors who had just returned from West Africa that the world ‘has the responsibility to act, to step up and to do more. The United States intends to do more.’ He announced a major American deployment to Liberia and Senegal of medicine, equipment and 3,000 military personnel. (more…)
Source: The New York Times | Obama Presses Leaders to Speed Ebola Response
2 September 2014
According to the Daily Mail, Britain is to spearhead a 10,000-strong NATO joint expeditionary force, aimed at bolstering the West’s capabilities in response to Russia’s recent actions in Ukraine. Other countries involved at the present time include Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway and the Netherlands. Canada has also expressed an interest in taking part. (more…)
Source: Financial Times | Nato states create new multilateral force
Source: Daily Mail | Britain to spearhead 10,000-strong Nato rapid reaction force with mission to halt Putin's 'Tsarist expansionism'
Source: The Sunday Times | New Nato reaction force aims to deter Russian aggression