The naval vessels and units participating in the drill departed from Alexandria Naval Base in formation on their way to the Black Sea
A number of Egyptian naval vessels participating in the Egyptian-Russian maritime drill dubbed Friendship Bridge 3 have crossed the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits on their way to the Black Sea, the Egyptian Armed Forces said on Monday.
This Week’s Highlights
While European officials hope U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will soften America’s tone with traditional allies, senior Western officials in the U.S. capital are braced for an abrasive change when it comes to U.S.-Russia relations, the Financial Times reports. “We expect a massive toughening of the stance towards Russia,” a high-ranking Western diplomat in Washington told the Financial Times. “There is a hatred for Russia amongst [Biden’s team] that is really amazing. It’s not just rational; it’s also very emotional.”
Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday met with a high-level Russian delegation advocating for jointly hosting an international conference on refugees in the capital Damascus next month.
Eforturi disperate şi teste majore pentru ONU, Rusia şi Turcia în Libia, în perspectiva retragerii trupelor străine, de mercenari şi stoparea aprovizionării cu arme a părţilor rivale şi a puzderiei de miliţii de tot felul, pentru a încerca trimiterea în negocieri politice de pace a haosului libian.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented further casualties in the Russian airstrikes on a camp belonging to the Ankara-backed al-Sham Corps in Jabal al-Dawila area in Harem, north-west of Idlib.
Turkey’s tests of its Russian-made S-400 air defense systems violate Ankara’s commitment to NATO and may hamper its security relations with the US, the Pentagon has said, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed the drills.
The Russian and Turkish sides are holding talks in the Russian capital, Moscow, to discuss the latest developments on the Syrian front.
Russian News agency TASS reported that the Turkish Deputy-Foreign Minister, Sedat Önal, arrived in Moscow on Thursday, at the head of a political delegation, to hold meetings with Russian officials on Syria and Libya.
An upcoming joint naval exercise involving the Egyptian and Russian navies, announced by the Russian Defense Ministry on October 10, is testimony to the fluid and rapidly changing strategic situation in the Eastern Mediterranean arena and the Middle East more generally.
In light of the conflict in the eastern Mediterranean between Turkey and Greece, Russia may be looking to strengthen its ties with Greece in order to further its interests in the region.
French President Emmanuel Macron has taken an activist approach recently to a range of thorny and persistent challenges in and around Europe.