U.S. not pressing Turkey over NATO missile shield, Gates saysOctober 19, 2010 - 18:12 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States has not pressured Turkey to take part in a NATO missile defense system, but expressed hope Ankara would endorse plans for the anti-missile shield. Gates said U.S. and Turkish officials have discussed the possibility of Turkey actively participating in the proposed missile defense system directed against Iran. "The US has engaged Turkey in political and military dialogue on its potential technical and operational contributions should NATO adopt this approach," Gates said in a speech to the American-Turkish Council in Washington. "Contrary to some press reports, we are not pressuring Turkey to make a contribution," said Gates, according to a text of the speech released by the Pentagon, AFP reported. 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. |