Naval and air forces of Egypt, Greece and Cyprus began a joint military drill on Monday along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, the Egyptian army said. The exercise, dubbed “Medusa 6,” came as part of the effort to boost the “distinguished relations” among the three countries, the army said in a statement.

Speaking at the North Atlantic Council in Foreign Ministers’ session in Brussels on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said Bulgaria supports NATO’s open door policy and believes that it is time to put under way the Membership Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Georgia.

On Tuesday (April 24) afternoon, Alexis Tsipras will be in Bucharest to participate in the 3rd high-level quadrilateral meeting of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. The co-ordination of the four states ahead of the EU-Western Balkans Summit that will be held in Sofia, the capital of the EU’s presiding country, Bulgaria for the first half […]

The meeting of foreign ministers of the Romania-Bulgaria-Greece trilateral cooperation format represented an opportunity to strengthen the European project, Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu said on Monday. “Our meeting was an opportunity to reconfirm the shared will of the three countries regarding the boosting of political dialogue in this trilateral format and assuming the commitment […]

Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Croatia – will help together for the European integration of the Western Balkans countries. This is the reason why the foreign ministers, Ekaterina Zaharieva, Nikos Kodzias, Teodor Melescanu and Maria Peichinovic Bouric, met at a working meeting in New York. Ministers have reviewed what has been achieved so far by Albania, […]

US Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday that the future of the Western Balkans lay “in the West,” on the last leg of a tour aimed at reassuring Eastern European allies worried by Russia. After visiting Baltic state Estonia and the Caucasus nation of Georgia, Pence arrived on Tuesday in NATO’s newest member Montenegro […]

Representatives of gas companies Bulgartransgaz EAD (Bulgaria), ICBG AD (Bulgaria), DESFA S.A. (Greece), FGSZ Ltd. (Hungary) and SNTGN TRANSGAZ S.A. (Romania) signed a memorandum of understanding about a project for implementation of the Vertical Gas Corridor. The document was signed Wednesday at a joint meeting in Bucharest, the Energy Ministry told BTA.

The issue of security and stability in the Western Balkans will be the focal point of a trilateral summit of Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian leaders at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall on Thursday. Prime ministers Alexis Tsipras, Boyko Borisov of Bulgaria and Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia are also expected to discuss Thessaloniki train links with Burgas […]

The EU recently agreed to extend sanctions against Russia on its actions in Ukraine following the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, 3 years ago. Moscow also sees NATO with suspicion after the Alliance has strengthened its presence in Eastern Europe.

New Europol report warns that the Balkan region remains vulnerable to Islamist terrorism – and remains a well-established route to and from the conflict zones for terrorist fighters. The EU’s annual Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, released June 15, says terrorists are still joining the conflict in Syria from the Balkans, which remains a route […]

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the new Prime Minister of Macedonia Zoran Zaev to NATO headquarters on Monday for talks on the partnership between the Alliance and Macednia. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the NATO chief congratulated Zaev on his appointment and welcomed the formation of a new government.

A NATO membership for Western Balkan countries would provide stability in the region, but it could materialise only after the main criteria are met, gen. Kircho Kirov, former head of the National Intelligence Service, told FOCUS Radio’s Good Morning Bulgaria. Macedonia’s attempts to join the EU and NATO should be appreciated, this would make our […]

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev here on Monday said his country would advocate for the integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the European Union (EU). During its presidency of the EU Council in 2018, Bulgaria would support Sarajevo in the process of obtaining a candidate status for the EU membership, Radev said at a joint press […]

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will visit Greece next week where he will attend a summit meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, Egyptian state media said on Thursday.

Nairobi – Gunmen and security forces clashed in a series of deadly clashes in Burundi, police said Tuesday, the latest violence since the controversial re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza. At least seven people were killed and 15 others injured in clashes since Monday, the last months of unrest triggered by Nkurunziza successful bid to win […]

NATO warships have entered the Black Sea ahead of military exercises this weekend. The training aims at reaffirming the US-led alliance’s commitment to defending the member states, in the wake of Russia’s apparent military aggression in eastern Ukraine.

Greece will launch consultations with Egypt and Greek Cyprus to establish maritime boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on April 29. Tsipras, who was visiting Greek Cyprus, said those boundaries – which are normally a precursor to a state licensing for offshore oil and gas exploration – would be defined in […]

At least 147 students were massacred when Somalia’s Shebab group attacked a Kenyan university on Thursday, the interior minister said, the deadliest attack in the country since US embassy bombings in 1998. Masked gunmen stormed the university in the northeastern town of Garissa as students were sleeping, hurling grenades and shooting dead others, before setting […]

Serbia on Monday welcomed the peace and reconciliation agreement in Mali, signed on 28 February in Algiers following the inter-Malian inclusive negotiations under the auspices of Algeria. “The Republic of Serbia welcomes the peace and reconciliation agreement in Mali, signed on 28 February2015, after inter-Malian inclusive negotiations which lasted eight months under the auspices of […]

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met here on Wednesday the new Greek Minister of Defence Panos Kammenos and thanked Greece for its continued commitment to the 28-member alliance. He stressed that Greece has contributed substantially to NATO for over six decades and said he counts on the steadfast commitment of Greece to NATO, according to […]

The International Court of Justice Tuesday dismissed claims of genocide by both Croatia and Serbia allegedly committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. “Croatia has failed to substantiate its allegation that genocide was committed. Accordingly, no issue of responsibility under the Convention for the commission of genocide can arise in the present case,” ruled […]

President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Sunday in Algiers held one-to-one meeting with his Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias, on a state visit to Algeria. President Papoulias started Saturday a three-day state visit to Algeria, at the invitation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is due in Athens for talks on Friday amid a tense atmosphere between Greece and Turkey, which has been exacerbated by the neighboring country’s decision to carry out naval exercises in the Aegean while discussions take place in the Greek capital. Turkish ships and submarines have been conducting exercises in […]

Russian president Vladimir Putin says that the US$50bn South Stream gas pipeline has been scrapped in favour of a new route through Turkey. Putin blamed the cancellation of the project – which would have seen a pipe constructed along a route through Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary- on opposition from within the EU. The bloc, which has […]

The European Parliament held a debate on the topic, “Turkish actions creating tensions in the exclusive economic zone of Cyprus,” stressing support for the EU member state Cyprus. Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, said the EU stands firmly by the sovereign rights of its member states to enter into […]

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hosted a meeting in Cairo with the attendance of Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Saturday and announced a new regional energy cooperation deal among Egypt, Greece and Greek Cyprus. Speaking at a joint press conference in Cairo, Greek Cypriot leader Anastasiades said the […]

The Egyptian, Cypriot and Greek foreign ministers met in the Cypriot capital Nicosia Wednesday to discuss shared interests and issues relating to energy, security, and tourism. The meeting took place in preparation for a new round of talks in Cairo on 8 November. A statement released by the Cypriot foreign ministry said that the main […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Serbia and Russia have strong political ties. He underscored that Moscow’s position on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija will not change and that Russia insists on it being resolved in line with UNSC Resolution 1244.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is meeting his counterpart Kristian Vigenin on July 7, during his official visit to Bulgaria. He is to mark the 135th anniversary since diplomatic relations were established between Bulgaria and Russia, the Foreign Ministry in Sofia said in a statement to the media.

BAGHDAD, June 25, (Agencies): Militants attacked one of Iraq’s largest air bases and seized control of several small oilfields on Wednesday as US special forces troops and intelligence analysts arrived to help Iraqi security forces counter a mounting Sunni insurgency. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting for his job and is under international […]

LONDON, June 23, (Agencies): British security forces will find it impossible to monitor all the estimated 500 jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq after they return home, a former top intelligence official said Monday. Richard Barrett, ex-head of counter-terrorism at the MI6 overseas security agency, told the BBC that authorities would have to try to […]

President Ivo Josipovic said that many war crimes still remain unprosecuted, sending the wrong message to Croatian society and to future generations. “The message that no crime can remain unpunished is important to future generations and to our society over the next few decades,” Josipovic told a round-table discussion on war crimes prosecutions in Zagreb […]

After Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region on Wednesday sought to join Russia, Romania’s President repeated that Romania firmly upholds Moldova’s territorial integrity. As armed clashes worsen in eastern Ukraine, and after parliament in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria on Wednesday formally asked to join Russia, Romania has expressed growing concern about the situation on its […]

Amid a tense election campaign in Macedonia, the main opposition party has claimed that the Prime Minister expedited the sale of bank to a shady Serbian businessman for a hefty bribe. Macedonia’s opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, has accused Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of selling Makedonska Banka AD to a controversial Serbian businessman, Jovica Stefanovic, […]

Four years after official Pristina and Podgorica established diplomatic relations, Kosovo has finally appointed a diplomatic representative in Montenegro. Jafer Ahmeti will take up his office as Kosovo’s charge d’affaires in Montenegro on Thursday. Speaking on Wednesday, he said opening diplomatic missions in Podgorica and Pristina would further intensify the cordial relations between the two […]