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NATO FMs' meeting to focus on Ukraine, anti-terror

Xinhua, May 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

NATO foreign ministers gathered on Wednesday in southern Antalya province of Turkey for a meeting as Ukrainian crisis and the threat of the Islamic State (IS) group on top of the agenda.

"One of the important issues at this meeting, in different formats, will be how NATO can do even more in fighting terrorism and in fighting the IS," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the start of the meeting.

Stoltenberg called for the full implementation of the Minsk cease-fire agreement for Ukraine.

"We call on Russia to stop supporting the separatists and to withdraw all its forces from eastern Ukraine," he said.

The NATO foreign ministers will also address the partnership and cooperation with Afghanistan and they will discuss and address the long term partnership with Afghanistan after the end of the present mission, Resolute Support, he stated.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu noted that his country's border regions are seeing growing violence of terrorism.

"Being the only NATO country that shares a land border with Daesh (IS in Arabic) controlled areas, this terrorist organization is a direct threat to our national security," the Turkish prime minister said.

In order to eliminate IS in Syria and Iraq, the international community should have better coordinated efforts, he said.

Turkey shares a 1,200 km border with Iraq and Syria, while many foreign fighters trying to join the ranks of jihadists have taken Turkey as a transit.

Davutoglu also said Turkey was ready to host next NATO summit after the one in Warsaw.

Turkey has offered to assume be responsible a framework nation in very high readiness joint task force for 2021 for Afghanistan, Davutoglu noted.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said defining a clearer security arrangement between Gulf countries and the U.S. is critical to fighting terrorism.

"Defining ... a clearer defense arrangement between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and other friendly countries and the U.S is going to be critical to helping to push back against the terrorism and violence and some of the other activities that take place in that region that are unsettling all of those countries," he told reporters,

His remarks came just before a summit in the United States with Gulf Cooperation Council states. Endit