International security

Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov will open today an international scientific conference on "Future Armed Forces 2040". It is organized by the Defense Prospective Research Institute (IMEO) of the Military Academy "G. S. Rakovski "together with AFCEA (Sofia) and Defense Defense and Project Management Departments of the Ministry of Defense, reported BGNES.

In anticipation of a national lab that will uncover the consequences of NATO's bombing, a Belgrade daily writs that similar research has been done before.

According to Vecernje Novosti, two large studies have been done to date - but "without any epilogue." Namely, as soon as alarming data emerged, everything was swept under the carpet, the daily said.

The Tuzla Canton (of the Muslim-Croat entity in Bosnia) is hosting a NATO field exercise dedicated to eliminating the consequences of disasters.

The drills start on Monday and will last until September 29 and are being carried out by NATO's Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center, Tanjug reported.

BRUSSELS - NATO respects Serbia's military neutrality and balanced position on relations with military alliances, Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who is visiting NATO's Brussels headquarters, said on Friday.

"Serbia-NATO relations are very good," Vulin told Tanjug.

BELGRADE - Serbia wants to cooperate with NATO, but it must be made clear to everyone that we do not want to be a member of that or any other military alliance, Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin said Wednesday.

Turkey takes steps to buy ballistic missiles to protect its citizens shared the Turkish President Recep Erdogan, who participates in the Bloomberg Global Business Forum, said BTA.

Turkey’s recent purchase of an advanced Russian anti-air weapons system may have violated a U.S. law that would require an automatic imposition of sanctions on the NATO member, a top Democratic lawmaker said today.

Commenting on Turkey's planned missile purchase from Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has reportedly said that it is "up to each member state" of the alliance to make its own decisions on the purchase of weapons.

"It's up to each individual ally to decide on what kind of equipment it acquires," the Russian Sputnik news agency quoted him as saying on Sept. 14.

German armed forces reduces the number of soldiers participating in NATO's trainings in eastern Europe this year. According to information from Germany, this is due to the long-term deployment of some 1,000 NATO troops in the Baltic countries and Poland. Only in Lithuania, Germany has 450 soldiers.

Defense Minister Krassimir Karakachanov said there is no concrete threat to Bulgaria, but pointed out that tensions exist in some regions of Europe. He is convinced that it can only be resolved on the path of dialogue and recalled that Europe has a common enemy - the radical Islam.