Austria opposes Turkey’s bid to join EU military projectJuly 27, 2021 - 18:16 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Vienna has objected to Turkey’s formal request in May to participate in one of the EU’s flagship defence and security policies, known as the Permanent Structured Cooperation Framework (PESCO), pointing to the country’s deteriorating democratic values and relations with the EU, Euractive reports. According to Austrian Defence Minister Klaudia Tanner, Turkey does not fulfil the admission requirements for third countries. “Article 2 of the treaty states clearly that the third state has to share the democratic values of the EU and has to have good neighbourly relations with the EU,” Tanner told Welt am Sonntag. Tanner also emphasised that there is currently no dialogue between Turkey and the EU on key defence and security issues. “Hence I don’t believe that Turkey will be participating in the EU defence policy in the near future,” Tanner said. The EU started to welcome third countries to PESCO in autumn 2020 in order to foster cooperation and interoperability with NATO partners and to “improving military mobility within and beyond the EU,” the EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in May. The US, Canada and Norway are already participating in the PESCO project. 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. |