Remarks by Secretary of State John Kerry With Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt And Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Arctic Council Ministerial Session.

Just back from Sweden and Finland -- not NATO allies, but certainly premier partners both. I visited both in my hat as Commander of US European Command.

As the Arctic climate continues to change, Arctic area nations are working together to address security concerns.

Exercise Sea Breeze 2012 (SB12) concluded with a closing ceremony at the Odessa Officer's Club in Odessa, July 21.

An opening ceremony was held at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, July 16, officially marking the beginning of Exercise Rapid Trident 2012.

The guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60) anchored outside of Karlskrona, Sweden, for a scheduled port visit, June 20.

NATO leaders and policy makers from Belgium, Italy, Slovakia, Sweden and the United States participated in a NATO-led Route Clearance Demonstration at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center at Hohenfels, Germany, June 11-15.

Maritime forces from 12 countries are participating in the 40th annual multinational, naval exercise in the Baltic Sea June 1-16.

Ther Persian Gulf war officially ended on Feb. 28, 1991

After 29 months of operation by the multinational Heavy Airlift Wing team, U.S. Air Force Major Brian Nicosia and his flightcrew passed the 6,000 flight-hours milestone of C-17 Globemaster IIIs assigned to Papa Air Base, Hungary.

Training exercises that require cooperation with service members from other countries can come with language and cultural barriers. SrA Amanda Wowk reports from the United Kingdom where U.S. and Swedish troops are teaming up to stay ready for whatever comes their way.

More than 30 non-commissioned officers (NCO) from Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, and the U.S. deployed to Exercise Sea Breeze 2011 attended a two-day training course on leadership development held at the Shirokyilan facility from Nicolaev.

Since NATO took over the Libyan mission at the end of March (see my earlierblog for a description of the mission), we have launchedalmost 6,000 total aircraft sorties.  Over 2,500 of them have been strikeand suppression of air defenses.  While the US provides about 25 percent ofthe support sorties (intelligence, refueling, surveillance, reconnaissance,suppression of enemy air defense), the rest of the coalition provides theremaining 75 percent.

Thank you very much, Jim [Jones], for that extremely generous introduction. You could say between SACEUR 14 and SACEUR 16, you have the “long and the short” of it. Indeed, some would say the procession from Jim Jones, a towering figure, to my -- shall we say more compact -- frame, might indicate a diminishing of the Alliance, but I will try my best to look taller tonight.

Military leaders from Nordic and Baltic countries to include Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, and of course, the host country of Norway joined the Admiral to discuss regional issues and challenges that they share.

U.S. ships attached to Destroyer Squadron 24 successfully completed Joint Warrior 10-2 in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Oct. 14.

U.S. and Turkish soldiers with Multinational Battle Group East took part in a massive two-day Crowd and Riot Control training event, Sept. 24 and 25, hosted by MNBG Center, with representatives from MNBG E, Kosovo Police and European Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX).