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In Sweden before the Parliamentary elections in 2014, the Swedish Government signed the Host Nation Agreement with NATO. The implication of this signature was that NATO, in times of crisis and war, will be able to deploy military equipment and staff for training on Swedish soil.

September 21 is the United Nations' International Day of Peace devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace. Vrede vzw calls all citizens and Belgian cities and municipalities which are member of the Mayors for Peace network, to bring this day under active public attention.

NATO has announced it will undertake large scale military manoeuvres in Spain, Italy and Portugal, from the beginning of October until the beginning of November 2015.

On September 4-5 in the normally peaceful little Welsh city of Newport, the latest NATO Summit took place, more than two years after the last summit in Chicago in May 2012.

Statement of the annual meeting of the international network No to War – No to NATO The annual meeting of the international network „No to War – No to NATO” releases the following statement on the NATO Summit in Newport / Cardiff in Wales

We have to counter the threat of war in the world more intensely and commonly and we have to interfere in the mankind question about “war and peace” with much more energy and more international actions.

After the Cold War NATO evolved into a global player. In this presentation I would like to emphasize that NATO is not what it pretends to be: an organization that promotes democracy and contributes to stabilization in the world. The reality is quite different.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip triggered a terrible war which was to be waged on an unprecedented scale and to drag on for more than four years

Belgium bought its F16 jet fighters in the seventies of last century. So, these planes are nearing their expiry date. The Belgian Minister of Defense, christian-democrat Pieter De Crem, announced now he wants them to be replaced by 40 new jet fighters.

According to a new report of the peace organization 'IKV Pax Christi Nederland', the major Belgian bank KBC invests 72,5 million dollar in a loan to Serco, a British company that produces nuclear weapons.

This fall Vrede vzw, together with Pax Christi, CNAPD and Vredesactie, is setting up a collective campaign advocating for the removal of US nuclear weapons from Kleine Brogel.

une 26 2013 – As more than 150 Palestine solidarity and social justice organizations from across the world, we stand in solidarity with all of the French campaigners for Palestinian rights facing legal action and repression for participating in demonstrations calling for a boycott of Israel.

The European Union provides generous research and development funds to Israeli companies and institutions in the military sector.

Report and Appeal to the International community to support a process of dialogue and reconciliation in Syria between its people and Syrian government and reject outside intervention and war. 

The economic crisis causes defence-budgets to decrease which brings some circles in alert modus. It is a subject that is dealt with in many speeches of NATO secretary-general Rasmussen who is talking about a growing and dangerous gap both inside NATO and with the rest of the world.

The letter below has been sent to the Ambassador of Switzerland to Belgium concerning the refusal of 66 applications for visas by those wishing to attend the Syrian International Conference that was held in Geneva 28-29 January 2013

A few dozens of political leaders and prominent figures of the ‘other Syrian opposition’ gathered in Geneva to plead for a non-violent transition to a democratic and secular Syria. According to the organizers it is the first international conference of the Syrian popular and peaceful civil movement that aspires