Eurasia

President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke on Tuesday as part of their ongoing discussions on shared security interests, including Iran, Afghanistan and Syria, the White House announced.

Turkey has asked NATO to extend for another year the deployment of surface-to-air Patriot missiles to protect its troubled border with Syria because of a continuing “serious” threat, officials said on Wednesday. “We have received a letter from the Turkish government requesting the continuation of the Patriot mission,” a NATO official said.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said that Bulgaria and Romania will not join Europe’s passport-free Schengen area in January 2014. In a Monday interview for French TV station TF1, Barroso, as cited by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA), claimed that the issue of Schengen

Saudi Arabia, in an unprecedented moved,formally rejected on Tuesday its two-year term on the UN Security Council, clearing the way for Jordan to take the seat as a replacement. The Middle East power had previously decried the 15-member council’s ineffectiveness in dealing with world affairs, notably

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić will on Tuesday in Belgrade meet with Defense Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu. On Wednesday, Shoigu and his Serbian counterpart Nebojša Rodić will sign

Greece supports Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, Greek Ambassador in Ankara Kyriakos Loukakis said on Monday. “I hope that the necessary conditions for Turkey’s accession to EU will be fulfilled and Turkey will join the union as

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to meet the leader of Iraq’s Kurdish regional government, Massoud Barzani, on Saturday to discuss the role of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) and the situation of

Japan and Turkey are considering joint development of tank engines as they aim to strengthen bilateral cooperation in defense-related technology, Kyodo News Agency reported Tuesday, citing a Japanese government source.

A Russian warship has docked in Egypt’s port of Alexandria in a move that officials said was aimed at bolstering Cairo’s relations with Moscow ahead of one of the highest level visits by Russian officials to the country in decades.

Activists say clashes have flared up between Syrian troops and rebels on the southern outskirts of Damascus as part of a weeks-long government push to advance on opposition-held areas.