Turkey’s exclusion from the European Defense Agency is undermining closer cooperation between Turkish and European defense companies, Sedat Guldogan, deputy undersecretary of the country’s Ministry of National Defense Industries said Wednesday.

The 21st Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is due to begin here later on Thursday, with presence of some 50 foreign ministers. The annual event is held under an invitation of the 2014 OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Switzerland’s Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter.

The European Commission Thursday adopted a package worth 180 million euro to deal with the effects of the Syrian crisis in the country itself, as well as in Lebanon and Jordan, who are currently hosting around 1.1 million and 630,000 refugees respectively. This package deals in particular with the education …