Despite the crisis in Georgia and the resultant increased tension in NATO/Russian relations, ships from SNMG 1 transited the Bosphorus on 21 Aug en route to exercises with NATO members bordering the Black Sea. This visit has been planned for more than 12 months and no doubt ships crews are looking forward to the opportunity to visit ports, which NATO ships have rarely seen. Constantza (Romania) and Varna (Bulgaria) are in the itinerary and the ships will spend several days in each as well as conducting exercises with each nation’s naval forces. Deployments like this serve several purposes, allowing the different navies to practice working together and improve understanding of NATO standard procedures, demonstrate NATO’s solidarity and also reiterate international rights to freely navigate the high sea. more…

Image by James Mollison, Agnte, CC

 High in the Safed Koh Mountains at the southern end of the Hindu Kush lays the Khyber Pass.  Since the time of Alexander the Great this route has been of great strategic importance and that is no less the case today.  This goes some way to explaining why it was chosen as the first site for a joint Border Coordination Centre (BCC) manned by personnel from the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), Pakistani military and Pakistani Frontier Corps and ISAF personnel.

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The loss of 10 French soldiers at Surobi earlier this week was a stark reminder, not that one was needed, of the dangers faced by Alliance troops working in Afghanistan.  The loss of so many comrades in a single incident is shocking but it also highlights why we are there.  The enemies we face are ruthless and determined, they are attempting to terrorise, intimidate and suicide bomb their way back to power and they have allied themselves with trans-national terrorist groups, including Al-Qeada, to whom they gave safe haven before 2001.  more…