NATO meeting: question of Ukraine and Afghanistan. Blinken: The time has come to withdraw the troops

Antony Blinken (Kenzo Tribouillard, Pool via AP)

• Afghanistan, via US troops by 11/9, towards announcement.

  NATO summit on military presence in the country

• Rohani: 60% uranium enrichment in Natanz is a response to nuclear terrorism

Share

April 14, 2021 The foreign ministers of the United States, France, Great Britain and Germany will meet today in Brussels to address the dossier on Afghanistan. The German foreign minister,

, confirms this to Ansa

. Among the dossiers on the table there is also the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and Iran. On

Ukraine "my impression is that the Russian side is doing everything to provoke reactions", but "we do not want to be drawn into this terrain". The German defense minister,

, said this on Ard TV before the NATO ministerial meeting.

President

urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to "ease tensions" following a Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian border. It was the second "tense" call from Biden's young presidency

The Kremlin will "study" the proposal for a face to face between the US president, Joe Biden, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, made yesterday by the White House . This was stated by the spokesman of the Kremlin,

. "It is still premature to talk about this meeting in a concrete way", Peskov explained to reporters, "there is a new proposal that needs to be studied". Today Putin discussed Biden's proposal with the Finnish president, Sauli Niinisto, but it has not been clarified whether Helsinki is already a candidate to host the meeting.

In the past 24 hours, a Ukrainian army soldier has been killed and three others injured in new fighting in Donbass, the pro-Russian separatist region of Ukraine. This was reported by the

.

observers

reported attacks by the Ukrainian army with mortars and grenade launchers against the positions of the secessionist militias of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic. Checks are underway to determine if there are civilian casualties.

The Russian navy has launched an exercise in the Black Sea that also involves air vehicles. This was reported by a press release

. Among the ships employed the frigate Admiral Makarov, the corvettes Graivoron and Vyshny Volochyok, the amphibious ship Samum, the minesweeper Ivan Golubets and some boats for landing troops.

The time has come to withdraw the troops present in Afghanistan and the United States will work with its allies for a coordinated withdrawal from this country: the head of American diplomacy,

,

said today on

his arrival at the NATO headquarters in Brussels. "We have achieved our goals. And now is the time to bring our strength home. President Biden will talk about it in the United States in a few hours. And I'm here to work closely with our allies," he said. Blinken declared on his arrival at the headquarters of the Atlantic Alliance for a videoconference meeting with his counterparts and the defense ministers of the 30 NATO member countries.

"We have always said: we go together" with the Americans, "we go out together". This was stated by the German Defense Minister,

, speaking on the German channel Ard, before meeting with the defense and foreign ministers of NATO member countries. "I am in favor of an orderly withdrawal, which is why I believe we will decide today," added the German minister, the German media reported. The Alliance must decide, during the videoconference, whether the conditions for ending its Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan are met or whether the presence of 9,600 soldiers from 36 countries should be maintained. The discussions come after news that the Biden administration intends to withdraw the US military from Afghanistan by 9/11, the twentieth anniversary of the 2001 attacks.