Eurasia

Canada will be dispatching an aviation task force to the troubled West African nation of Mali as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission, a senior government official said Friday. The government source said the task force will be in Mali for up to 12 months and an official announcement …

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry headed for India on Wednesday to lead Egypt’s delegation in the seventh round of the joint committee between the two countries. In an official statement, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said the joint committee will commence its meetings on Thursday, followed by ministerial …

The UN Security Council on Wednesday told the peace envoy for Western Sahara to press on with talks on relaunching negotiations to settle the dispute over the North African territory. Horst Koehler met with the council behind closed doors to report on his meetings with representatives from Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania …

Defence Ministers of Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia held a meeting in Bucharest. These nine NATO eastern-flank countries form a group known as the Bucharest Nine, or B9. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg recently told public broadcaster Polish Radio that there is no time …

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 …

Libyan military officers representing the army of Libyan General Khalifa Haftar and the Al-Sirraj government agreed on Tuesday during meetings in Cairo on the importance of preserving the unity and sovereignty of the Libyan state, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported. The meetings, which started on Friday, were hosted by the …

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was taken into police custody on Tuesday for questioning over suspected Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign, a source close to the inquiry said. Sarkozy, 63, had until now refused to respond to a summons for questioning in the case, which drew heightened scrutiny …

The President of the African Union (AU) and Chadian Commission, Moussa Faki, has announced that the AU is ready to draft a proposal for the resolution of the conflict in Western Sahara. The announcement follows a three-day visit to Algeria, against which Morocco spoke out, where the AU is looking …

NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, Ambassador Alejandro Alvargonzález, paid an official visit to Algeria on 19 and 20 March 2018 in the framework of the Alliance’s Mediterranean Dialogue.

Egypt’s military says four troops and 36 Islamic militants have died in the past five days of fighting in the restive Sinai Peninsula. Monday’s statement says one officer was among the four killed army personnel. It also says that eight soldiers were wounded, including two officers.