NATO chief to meet Russian Foreign Minister for first timeFebruary 3, 2015 - 14:57 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - NATO says Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will meet with Russia's foreign minister for the first time this week, at a time when relations between Moscow and the West have plunged to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War, the Associated Press reports. NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said Tuesday, Feb 3, that Stoltenberg and Sergey Lavrov, the Kremlin's top diplomat, will hold bilateral talks during the Munich security conference, a three-day gathering of foreign and security officials from around the world that begins Friday. It will be Stoltenberg's first meeting with Lavrov since he became secretary-general of the U.S.-led NATO alliance in November. Stoltenberg's deputy on Monday said "Russia's aggression against Ukraine" has been a game-changer for NATO and European security. Meanwhile, Moscow has accused NATO of operating a "foreign legion" in Ukraine. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |