Category Archives: NATO

The U.S. team scored the most improved in this year's NATO Locked Shields cyberwar games, but experts said that result might not be reason to celebrate.

The Locked Shields event is a "live-fire" cyberdefense exercise organized by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in which teams are "tasked to maintain the services and networks of a military air base of a fictional country, which, according to the exercise scenario, will experience severe attacks on its electric power grid system, unmanned aerial vehicles, military command and control systems, critical information infrastructure components and other operational infrastructure."

During the cyberwar games, there were more than 2500 possible attacks that could be carried out against more than 3000 virtualized systems meant to simulate military air command and control systems, drone and ground control, a large-scale SCADA system controlling the power grid and programmable logic controllers.

Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity strategy at Illumio and former director of cybersecurity policy for the White House, said this type of cyberwar practice is "essential to effective cybersecurity."

"Exercises like this are an important way that security teams can build experience for real threats. The Locked Shields war game is interesting in that it focuses entirely on defense: teams compete to protect their networks, with third parties playing the intruders," Gleicher told SearchSecurity. "This is an especially useful form of wargame -- defense is much more difficult than offense, and any opportunity our teams get to improve their skills in defense is a great opportunity."

John Bambenek, threat research manager at Fidelis Cybersecurity, said it was especially important for the cyberwar games to be "live-fire."

"Defenders learn best in a live-fire environment.When the 'red team' can simulate what adversarial nations are doing, that's even better," Bambenek told SearchSecurity."Tabletop exercises can only take learning so far.Operators need valuable experience, and they need to do so under fire."

The U.S. Army Cyber Brigade was one of 25 countries to compete in the Locked Shields 2017 cyberwar games and finished 12th, which is a marked improvement from the 2016 event where the U.S. was last out of 19 countries participating.

However, Bambenek said "given the threats we face as a nation, we simply can't accept anything less than number one."

"That said, the improvement from last place to the middle of the pack shows an increase in capability. It also shows that they are learning.That's exactly the point of these exercises," Bambenek said and noted that enterprises should take a lesson from the games. "Training, particularly hands-on training, is crucial for the continued improvement and development of defenders.Enterprises should set aside funds to participate in third-party exercises so their team can practice. Always use events within an organization as training.Successful, yet minor, breaches should not resort in blamestorming sessions. Instead, they should be used to help defenders improve."

Gleicher said the U.S. team's results offer an important lesson -- "everyone struggles with defense."

"To be honest, the cards are stacked against defenders from the beginning. The teams are placed in an unfamiliar environment to make life more difficult for them, but the truth is that most defenders are operating in an unfamiliar environment anyway, because most organizations understand surprisingly little about the applications that they are protecting," Gleicher said. "If there's any lesson from this exercise and others like it, it's that we need to substantially increase our ability to understand and control the environments we are protecting."

Learn about the benefits of a cybersecurity training center.

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NATO cyberwar games shows the U.S. needs more practice - TechTarget

Late last week, Montenegro's parliament voted to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, adding perhaps the most militarily useless memberto the alliance. The move served no purpose except to maintain the shaky hopes of Georgia and Ukraine that they might be allowed to join, too -- someday.

Montenegro, with 2,080 military personnel, will have the second-smallest military in the alliance after Luxembourg, with its 900-strong defense force. Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's insistence that NATO members spend the agreed-upon 2 percent of economic output on defense, few people in the U.S. or NATO appear worried about Montenegro's inability to meet that target. This year, in line with previous practice, it's spending about 50 million euros ($54.5 million), or about 1.3 of its gross domestic product. It's the smallest military budget of anyNATO member. Albania spends more than twice as much, Luxembourg five times as much.

When Montenegro's admission was first discussed, some analysts made the point that it would complete the NATO "ownership" of the entire coastline of the Adriatic Sea: the rest of it belongs to Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Albania, NATO members all. But even if Italy were the sole NATO member on the Adriatic, the narrow sea would have been a death trap for any invading force. During World War II, the allies decided against invading in the area, instead providing aid to Marshal Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavia. The German navy held out inthe Adriatic until the very end of the war.

In addition to Montenegro's utter lack of military importance, it has a population that's lessthan enthusiastic about NATO membership. Polls are unreliable, and public opinion is split roughly down the middle. This is far short of the nearly universal support NATO enjoyed in new eastern European members such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in the 1990s.

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The country's large Serbian population is wary of the alliance and would rather do business with Russia. Pan-Slavic ideas are popular, helped by Russia's economic expansion in the last 10 years. Even after Russian tourism to Europe shrank following the 2014 Crimea invasion, Russians are still responsible for about 22percent of tourist arrivals in Montenegro. Almost a third of Montenegrin companies and 40 percent of all real estate are owned by Russians, and Russia has provided a thirdof foreign direct investment in the nation. A lot of the money comes from the "patriotic" elite fostered by Russian President Vladimir Putin: loyalist legislators, state company managers, top law enforcers. Travel to Montenegro is visa-free for Russians; the neighbors are, for the most part, friendly; and owning a villa there is less of a risk than, say, across the Adriatic in Italy.

This Russian connection, Moscow's loud warnings against NATO's further expansion, and Montenegro's manageable size make it an ideal prop for a symbolic move. As Karl-Heinz Kamp of Germany's Federal Academy for Security Policy wrote ahead of Montenegro's invitation into NATO:

This sends above all a political message, not least to Russia, that NATO is sticking to its "open door policy" and that it refuses to accept a Russian veto against the right of free choice to form alliances. Montenegro's contribution to NATO may be limited, but that will make it easier to integrate this small country into the Alliance.

Most likely, Moscow realized back in 2015 that it couldn't do anything about Montenegro's NATO accession. It's a natural move for a countryso integrated into the European Union that it uses the euro as its currency despite not being an official euro-zone member. The character of Russian investment in the country doesn't give Moscow any direct political leverage. Montenegrin leaders are grateful for the money, but they don't feel indebted. After all, wealthy Russians choose their country of their own free will, to some extent as a form of protection against problems at home.

The Montenegrin government insists that Russian nationals took part in an anti-NATO coup attempt last year, but even if that's accurate, the amateurish plot looks as though it was hatched by Moscow pan-Slavists, a group that wants to appear closer to Putin's Kremlin than it actually is. The official line is based on the understanding that Russia can't stop Montenegro from joining NATO. The loud protestsregularly heard from the Russian foreign ministry and other quarters close to the Kremlin are a kind of ritual dance. For the Russian regime, as for NATO itself, the real issue isthe possibility of NATO's eventual expansion to post-Soviet countries.

In a recent column for state-owned propaganda outlet RIA Novosti, political scientist Gevorg Mirzayan wrote:

Tough opposition needs to be constantly stressed, even in an apparently unimportant case such as Montenegro's inclusion in NATO. If Moscow stays silent, it will be seen as a change in Russia's position on NATO expansion as such.

In this strange dance, both NATO and Russia know the limits of each other's courage. Russia won't launch a Crimea-style operation in Montenegro, since it wouldn't gain anything geopolitically or militarily, but the fallout might be even more toxic than from meddling in Ukraine. NATO won't ignore the frozen conflicts Russia has organized in Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine; these mini-wars essentially prevent the three countries from joining the alliance without unduly endangering its existing members. It's a standoff in which all both sides can do is signal their positions. With Montenegro's accession, NATO is telling aspiring members to hang tough, for their time may yet come. By stamping its feet in frustration, Moscow is telling the same NATO aspirants and NATO itself that that's a pipe dream.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Landman at jlandman4@bloomberg.net

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Why NATO Wants Montenegro (Not for Its Military Might) - Bloomberg - Bloomberg

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Without providing specific figures, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg revealed on Sunday that the military alliance might boost its military presence in the war-devastated country.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trumps Pentagon is considering plans to send as many as 5,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan where the United States has been fighting the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies for more than 15 years, since October 2001.

Although the United States military argues the U.S. war has hit a stalemate, Bill Roggio from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) recently told lawmakers America is losingthe ongoing conflict, adding that al-Qaeda and the Taliban are growing stronger.

This year, American Gen. John Nicholson, the top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, told Congress he was facing a shortfall of a few thousand troops in Afghanistan.

In light of the challenging security conditions in the country, NATO may increase its military footprint, NATO Chief Stoltenberg told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

NATO will likely make a decision on the troop increase and whether to lengthen deployment times by June, he added.

Last week, new reports surfaced saying the Pentagon is considering options to send between 3,000 and 5,000 American troops to advise the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in their fight against the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Afghanistan.

The ANDSF includes police and army units.

On Monday, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) noted that the ANDSF has suffered a staggering number of fatalities.

Afghan losses have been the greatest of all: more than twice as many ANDSF members were killed in the single year of 2016 than U.S. forces in Afghanistan have lost since 2001, notes SIGAR, a U.S. watchdog agency, adding:

Afghanistan remains in the grip of a deadly war. Casualties suffered by the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in the fight against the Taliban and other insurgents continue to be shockingly high: 807 were killed in the first six weeks of this year. Likewise, civilian casualties in 2016 were the highest since the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan began reporting them in 2009.

Moreover, SIGAR points out that security incidents, primarily fueled by battles with the Taliban, have reached record levels, noting that most of the attacks continue to take place along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, home to strongholds held by the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and ISIS.

Security incidents throughout 2016 and continuing into the first quarter of 2017 reached their highest level since UN reporting began in 2007, reports the watchdog agency. Armed clashes between the security forces and the Taliban comprised 63% of all security incidents in Afghanistan during that period and marked a 22% increase from the same period in 20152016.

Citing the United Nations, it adds, During the last year, half of all recorded security incidents continued to occur in the southern, southeastern, and eastern regions [along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border].

The Afghan government controls about 60 percent of Afghanistan, insurgents (primarily the Taliban) 11 percent, and the remaining 29 percent are contested, reveals SIGAR.

President Donald Trump has inherited security chaos in Afghanistan a stronger Taliban that controls more territory than at any time since the war started more than 15 years ago, an ISIS presence in a region already awash in jihadist groups, and historically high production and cultivation of opium and heroin.

The Taliban and likely other terrorist groups in the country use the lucrative profits from the opium business to fund their terrorist activities.

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NATO, US Mulling More Troops to Afghanistan amid Worsening Security Situation - Breitbart News

President Donald Trumps recent reversal on his prior criticisms of NATO was not a reversal, Vice President Mike Pence argued on Sunday, falsely claiming that Trump successfully forced the alliance to change.

He didnt change on NATO, Pence said on NBCs Meet the Press. NATO changed.

During his campaign, Trump called the alliance obsolete, but as president, hechanged his tune. Yet Pence insisted it was Trump who convinced NATO to shift its priorities.

I mean on the international scene, heres a president whos said that NATO had to change, that our NATO allies had to begin to step up to begin to share the burden of the cost of our common defense. And they are, Pence said. Theyre also changing the mission of NATO to focus more on terrorism.

Pences claim resembled a similar suggestion by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who attributed Trumps reversal to the world shifting toward Trumps position, rather than the other way around.

If you look at whats happened, its those entities or individuals in some cases or issues evolving toward the presidents position, Spicer said earlier this month. NATO is moving toward what he has been calling for.

When host Chuck Todd mentioned to Pence that NATO and its priorities have been evolving for years, under multiple U.S. presidents, not simply as a result of Trump, Pence blamed the gale-force wind of the establishment here in Washington, D.C. and the media for not focusing on the presidents relentless effort to keep his promises to the American people.

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Mike Pence Claims Trump Didn't Change His Stance On NATO Rather, NATO Changed - Huffington Post

More British troops could be on their way to Afghanistan as part of a Nato plan to increase force numbers to help the countrys embattled government fight a resurgent Taliban.

International military officers have watched with alarm as Kabuls territorial control has slipped to little more than half the war-racked nation, according to US estimates, amid accusations that Russia is supplying arms to the Taliban.

In an interview with a German newspaper, Jens Stoltenberg, Nato secretary general, said the challenging security situation meant the alliance was weighing a plan to increase the number of personnel in its Resolute Support mission beyond the current level of 13,000.

Nato will make its decision by June on any troop increase and on whether to lengthen deployments which currently run for a year, he was quoted by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper as saying.

He added that Nato could become more engaged in Jordan and Tunisia, calling both "islands of stability" in an unstable region.

The British deployment to Afghanistan amounts to about 500 personnel.

They are mostly deployed to provide security around the capital Kabul but also include special forces commandos.

The UK keeps troop levels under constant review in line with Nato needs but it is understand that the Ministry of Defence has not yet received any formal request for an increase.

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More British troops could be on their way to Afghanistan as Nato considers mission boost - Telegraph.co.uk

Danielle Ryan is an Irish freelance writer, journalist and media analyst. She has lived and traveled extensively in the US, Germany, Russia and Hungary. Her byline has appeared at RT, The Nation, Rethinking Russia, The BRICS Post, New Eastern Outlook, Global Independent Analytics and many others. She also works on copywriting and editing projects. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook or at her website http://www.danielleryan.net.

This weeks vote by Montenegros parliament to ratify the protocol for the tiny Balkan nations admittance into the NATO alliance was a cruel irony.

Less than 20 years ago, during the Kosovo War, when the country was still part of Serbia, NATO jets were pounding Montenegro with depleted uranium bombs. Those bombs caused long-term damage to the nations health, which doctors today have linked to increases in systemic cancers among the population. Unsurprisingly, there remains some deeply anti-NATO feeling in the country today and NATO membership is a hugely divisive issue.

Nonetheless, Montenegros government decided to forgo a referendum on NATO membership, denying the countrys citizens any say in the matter.

Why Montenegro?

American lawmakers have been enthusiastically anticipating Montenegros arrival into the alliance, but it has little to do with the country being of any significant military value because Montenegro delivers absolutely nothing to NATO in terms of military strength. The countrys 2,000 troops are hardly a big draw, though its location is strategically significant and would give NATO almost full control of the Adriatic Sea, given that Italy, Croatia and Albania are already members).

The country is also unlikely to be facing down any major military threats from which it would need NATOs protection. Nor are there any legitimate reasons to claim that Montenegro has any value to the US in terms of its national security interests.

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The reasons for Montenegros ascension into NATO are therefore largely symbolic. Admitting the tiny Adriatic country as the blocs 29th member sends the message that the US-led alliances open door policy remains in place. Its an opportunity to convey that the US sphere of influence is ever-expanding and limitless. Its the geopolitical equivalent of Washington sticking its tongue out at Russia and making childish noises to confirm its superior level of coolness. In other words, as one analyst noted, NATO is adding new members the way people add Facebook friends that deliver zero value or relevance to their lives, but the higher the number, the more popular you look.

Indeed, the Washington-based conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation argued in a recent paper that Montenegros membership would send a message of strength to Russia. If thats the best reason they can come up with to justify adding a militarily insignificant new member to a military alliance, its a pretty weak case.

When the US Senate was debating Montenegros membership, avid warmonger and notoriously delusional senator John McCain accused Senator Rand Paul ofworking for Putin simply because he was against the country joining the bloc. This kind of baseless outburst only confirms that the likes of McCain and other pro-NATO expansionists have no real arguments to fall back on if they can only meet legitimate disagreements with accusations of working for Putin.

Shift to the West?

There is a clear temptation in Western reports to explain the move by Montenegros parliament as a shift to the West for the country, but it is hardly so straightforward.

The opposition Democratic Front alliance believes that the government wont allow a referendum on the issue because they would lose. This is not unlikely. Polls have shown that Montenegrins are deeply divided over whether to enter NATO. Anti-NATO members of parliament boycotted the vote and several hundred people showed up outside to protest it, chanting treason! and thieves!. One banner seen in photographs read: Nato killers, you have blood on your hands. The opposition say they will freeze the countrys membership if they win the parliamentary elections in 2021.

Montenegro is a notoriously corrupt country. Former prime minister Milo Djukanovic who ruled the country for 25 years (save a few short interruptions) has been accused of using the country as his own personal ATM and of muzzling the press. In 2009, he was implicated in a cigarette smuggling ringthat reportedly laundered $1 billion in profits, but was never charged. In 2015, he earned himself the title man of the year in organized crime by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

Djukanovic called the October 2016 election a referendum on NATO membership but the vote which sealed the nations fate regarding NATO membership was marred with serious allegations of fraud. One opposition leader called it the most fraudulent we've ever had. At the time, the EU called for an investigation, though in reality Brussels and Washington turned a blind eye given that the election results suited their own agenda. Similarly, the media werent overly interested the previous year when Montenegrins took to the streets to protest the pro-EU/NATO government.

The value placed on anti-corruption protesters around the world seems to be decided based more on their value to Western geostrategic interests than anything else. If those Montenegrins had been protesting a government regarded as friendly with Moscow, there would have been no end to the coverage and no doubt, some American officials would have shown up in Podgorica to show their support.

Blaming Russia

Djukanovic stepped down and was replaced as prime minister by his ally Dusko Markovic after his party won the October election. Djukanovic has been eager to portray NATO membership and Russian influence as the biggest issue facing Montenegro. On election day, he announced there had been an attempted coup and Russian plot to assassinate him, with the aim being to prevent Montenegros entry into NATO.

Opposition parties say this coup was a fabrication; an attempt to rally support as people went to the polls. Knowing how well anti-Russian sentiment plays in the West these days, perhaps he thought a fake Russian plot would be a good way to get some attention.

Its unlikely however, that Moscow sees the minuscule addition of Montenegros 2,000 troops as reason enough to assassinate a foreign leader to prevent it from happening particularly when Vladimir Putin is already busy running rings around the rest of the world and hacking everything with an electric current.

Of course, Russia is not exactly delighted about Montenegro joining NATO Moscow is against NATO expansion in general but Putin is hardly quaking in his boots over this particular addition to the Western social club.

Given that NATO found itself without purpose in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, it has struggled to maintain its relevance. This is why it engages in hair-brained and disastrous humanitarian interventions in countries like Libya. It is also why NATO perpetuates the ridiculous notion of Russia as an existential threat to the Western world. NATOs goal is to perpetuate its existence and stay relevant. Everything it does is in pursuit of this goal.

Adding members like Montenegro purely in an attempt to antagonize Russia is foolish. It serves only to confirm to Moscow that Washington disregards its interests and security which ironically, could cause more instability to NATO than any benefit gleaned from adding Montenegro.

Then again, for all the talk NATO does about security and stability, it seems to benefit most from exactly the opposite.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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NATO mission creep on road to Russia reaches Montenegro - RT

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Estonia Leads the Way in NATO's Cyberdefense Wall Street Journal (subscription) TALLINN, EstoniaA hotel conference room in the Baltic republic of Estonia recently became the front line in a rehearsal for cyberwarfare, in an exercise that tested the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's readiness to repel hackers. Last week ...

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Estonia Leads the Way in NATO's Cyberdefense - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

NORFOLK

The Norfolk NATO Festival parade on Saturday is the only one of its type in the United States, and will pay tribute to the 28 nations that make up the military alliance.

One of the voices heard over loudspeakers at the parade will belong to Air Force Command Chief Master Sgt. Jack Johnson Jr., who will help explain to spectators the floats representing each country.

Johnson is the senior enlisted leader at NATOs Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, which is NATOs only headquarters in North America.

Johnsons grandparents and parents lived in Norfolk, and he remembers walking the citys streets as a child before his father was assigned to Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, where he also would be assigned later in his own career.

He considers Hampton Roads his home even after being stationed around the world. He said being chosen to serve as a master of ceremonies to talk about a city he loves as part of an international organization is an honor that would have made his grandparents proud.

The following are excerpts from an interview with Johnson that have been edited for length and clarity.

Q. Youre an emcee at Saturdays NATO Festival Parade. What does that entail?

A. This is a big honor. Two years ago I was the grand marshal. I mustve done something right because Im going to get the opportunity to emcee. So Ill narrate. As our floats and folks are coming across, I get a chance to kind of explain to the audience the significance ... of the floats and those that are passing before us.

Q. Many people are unfamiliar with NATOs Allied Command Transformation. What does the command do?

A. As everyone is fixed on today and all the global challenges that we have, youve got to have an organization out there who is looking at the challenges of tomorrow, and thats what we do. ... We work with local NATO agencies around the world. We work with not just the 28 nations that are a part of NATO, but we work with probably another 20-plus in addition to that of partner nations, non-governmental organizations, governmental organizations, industry, academia, centers of excellence, training. Quite frankly, we take the best and the brightest minds and the best that there is to offer and we take that and look at how do we ensure we have the capability and the ability to meet tomorrows challenges.

Q. Whats the most challenging aspect of working with 28 member nations?

A. I dont know if I would say I really have that many challenges because our job here as strategic thinkers and critical thinkers is to always keep our minds open to everything I mean to absolutely everything. So if you come in with a narrow focus on what you believe is the right direction, then its not consistent with what we call transformation future operations because every thought matters.

Q. Whats the most enjoyable part of working with people from so many countries and cultures in Norfolk at NATO?

A. I absolutely love Hampton Roads, the Peninsula and the surrounding area, and its very easy for us to take certain things for granted. And then someone else from a different nation comes in and youre looking at your own community through the eyes of others and their eyes are bright, their eyes are big, and they talk about how great the communities are, how good the schools are, they talk about the different volunteer opportunities they have. ... I love to listen to them as they talk about the region that I love through their lenses.

Q. What do you wish more people in Hampton Roads knew about NATOs presence here?

A. Amongst the more than 2,000 staff members and to include their families, that theyre a part of our community. They are your neighbors, they are your volunteers, they are in your schools. They are contributing immensely to the Hampton Roads area, not just economically, but theyre broadening their understanding of the world.

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5 questions with NATO's enlisted leader in Norfolk ahead of NATO ... - Virginian-Pilot

Violence erupted in Macedonias parliament as tensions between ethnic Albanian minorities and nationalists boiled over, prompting sharp rebukes from Western governments.

Protesters supportive of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party, as well as individuals clad in identity-concealing hoods, stormed parliament on Thursday night local time, violently accosting at least lawmakers and journalists. Police say the violence left 102 inside and outside parliament injured.

Parliament had just managed to break the filibuster of the minority VMRO-DPMNE. The party lost its governing majority in Decembers elections, which were an attempt to quell concern after leaked wiretaps showing illegal surveillance and corruption on the part of the then-ruling party. The governing majority is now the Social Democrats, led by Zoran Zaev, in coalition with the parliaments ethnic Albanian parties. President Gjorge Ivanov has so far defied calls to make Zaev prime minister.

On Thursday, parliament managed to move forward in putting together a new government by voting on a new speaker, who received the support of the Social Democratic parties as well as members of the ethnic Albanian parties. The newly elected speaker is Albanian Talat Xhaferi.

The demonstrators, who had been protesting the influence of ethnic Albanian parties, broke through the police and entered parliament to assault journalists and legislators including some Albanian MPs. And so the fear now is that what had been a political crisis, with VMRO-DPMNE attempting to scare the Macedonian population with the idea of more rights for Albanians, will become a full-fledged ethnic clash.

The Macedonian and ethnic Albanian communities are still living next to each other, not together, Jan Cingel, a researcher with the Bratislava-based GLOBSEC Policy Institute, told Foreign Policy. If something happens some kind of a spark can light more tensions.

The European Union and NATO swiftly condemned the assault on lawmakers and reporters.

The acts of violence in the Parliament are wholly unacceptable and we call for calm and restraint, Federica Mogherini, the EUs head of foreign policy, and Johannes Hahn, European commissioner, said in a joint statement.

I strongly condemn yesterdays attacks on members of Parliament in Skopje. Violence has no place in any parliament, said Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary general.

But the EU and NATO havent specified how they could follow up on these words of warning. And, of course, not all EU member states saw the situation the same way.

Hungarys foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, echoed the official Russian position in blaming influence from abroad. Moscow blames the EU and United States; Budapest, external intervention and, of course, Hungarian-born billionaire and perpetual bogeyman George Soros. (Russian and European interest and investment in the region increased only recently, said Cingel, who believes the protests were the manifestation of homegrown tension.)

Macedonia hasnt had a government since December, when former Prime Minister Nukola Gruevski won an election but didnt gain enough votes to win a parliamentary majority. Talks with the ethnic Albanian parties floundered over a debate on designating Albanian as an official second language in Macedonia.

Macedonia, a former Yugoslav republic, plunged into ethnically-fueled strife and violence following Yugoslavias break-up in the 1990s. In 2001, the countrys Albanian minority led an armed rebellion that ended under a NATO-brokered peace agreement. The peace deal failed to resolve tensions between the countrys ethnic groups, which have been simmering ever since.

While Macedonia made a series of democratic and market-oriented reforms in the past decade to boost their prospects of joining the EU and NATO, experts fear the country is backsliding and that the political crisis could spill into the streets.

Photo credit:ROBERT ATANASOVSKI/AFP/Getty Images

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NATO, EU Rebuke Macedonia Over Parliament Violence - Foreign Policy (blog)

Jens Stoltenberg: Thank you very much Prime Minister Gentiloni, Paolo. We have met many times before, but this is the first time we meet formally in your new capacity as Prime Minister and I really appreciate this opportunity to meet with you, to discuss a wide range of security challenges we face together in NATO. But especially to focus on the preparations for the meeting in May in Brussels, where NATO leaders, heads of state and government, are going to meet. The new US President, the new President of France, but also Montenegro, which is going to be at the next or the new member of NATO we will all be together there and showing the strength and the solidarity of the alliance through being together in Brussels at the leaders meeting.

Let me also thank Italy for being such a vital and highly valued NATO ally. You are contributing to NATO missions, operations, activities in many different ways and that is of great importance for our shared security, for our collective defence and for the strength of the alliance. You are on the top when it comes to contributing forces to our mission in Afghanistan. You are in Afghanistan with forces which are of great importance for the mission. I have met them myself in Herat and they are there helping to stabilize Afghanistan and also helping to fight international terrorism in Afghanistan and we thank you for your presence in Afghanistan. You are also present in the Balkans, helping to keep the Balkans stable and to also address the challenges posed by foreign fighters in that part of Europe and we also thank you for being the lead nation, having the leadership in our KFOR mission in Kosovo.

Let me also thank you for your contribution later this year to a Canadian-led battle group in Latvia, being part of our enhanced forward presence in the eastern part of the alliance. And Italy will next year lead our High Readiness Joint Task Force or Spearhead Force which is of great importance for the readiness of the alliance and the ability of the Alliance to reinforce if needed.

So you are participating and contributing in many different ways to the strength of the alliance. In particular I would like to thank Italy for being the driving force for developing NATOs strategy towards the south. We are now in the process of establishing a Hub for the south in our Joint Force Command in Naples. This will be an important tool in strengthening, enhancing NATOs ability to address the challenges we see emanating from the south, improve our situational awareness and improve our ability to react and to deal with the threats, including working with partners in the south.

NATO has been at the forefront of fighting terrorism for many, many years and our biggest military operation ever is in Afghanistan and we have to remember that the reason why we are in Afghanistan is to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for international terrorists once again. NATO is also contributing to the fight against terrorism in many other ways. We have established a new division for intelligence. Sharing intelligence is key when it comes to addressing the terrorist threat. NATO is also providing support for the Counter-ISIL coalition, training Iraqi officers and providing AWACS surveillance plane support to the Coalition and you are really an important contributor to the Counter-ISIL Coalition and this is important for all of us. We are stepping up our support for Iraq and we have recently included military medicine, courses and training and also stepping up our counter-IED activities when it comes to helping Iraq stabilize their own country and fight, and fight terrorism.

NATO is also prepared to help Libya. I spoke with Prime Minister al-Sarraj last week. A NATO expert team will meet with the Libyan authorities in the coming weeks to discuss how NATO can help Libya build institutions, including a modern ministry of defence, joint chief of staff and intelligence serviceshelp to build institutions which are crucial to stabilize Libya. And Italy is once again being a highly valued ally because you are really present, you are really helping to solve the crisis, the problems in Libya through the political process, but also through your presence in Libya. And we all are grateful for what you do there.

Let me also underline that NATO and the European Union have stepped up our cooperation which is also important for Italy, being a member of both the European Union and NATO. And we have the NATO maritime security operation in the Mediterranean, Sea Guardian, and we have, currently we have four ships, three maritime patrol aircrafts and some other assets providing direct support to the EUs Operation Sophia, showing how NATO can help support the European Union addressing the challenges, the migrant and the refugee crisis we see in the central Mediterranean and we are also present in the Aegean Sea dealing with the migrant and refugee crisis.

As you mentioned we will also address burden sharing at the meeting in May with heads of state and government. Burden sharing is about defence spending and of course when tensions are going up we have to increase our investment in defence. I welcome that Italy has increased. Last year, Italy increased defence spending. And we are following up on the pledge we made together in 2014 to stop the cuts, to gradually increase defence spending and then move towards spending 2 % of GDP on defence within a decade. But burden sharing is about more than spending. Burden sharing is also about the capabilities we are developing and Italy again is contributing with many important capabilities to NATO, to the alliance and the contributions to NATO activities, missions and operations in Kosovo, in Afghanistan but also when it comes to our presence in the eastern part of the alliance.

So once again thank you so much for an excellent meeting. Thank you for everything Italy is doing for our alliance and Im looking forward to seeing you again in Brussels on the 25th of May together with all the other leaders showing the strength and the unity of the alliance. Thank you.

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by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the joint press point with the President of the Council of Ministers ... - NATO HQ (press release)