Military spending by NATO countries is set to fall again this year in real terms despite increased tensions with Russia and a pledge by alliance leaders last year to halt falls in defense budgets, NATO figures released on Monday showed.

• June 23, 2015

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter will urge NATO allies to "dispose of the Cold War playbook" during a trip to Europe this week, as the alliance adapts to a new kind of threat from Russia in the east and Islamic State to the south, U.S. officials said.

• June 21, 2015

A senior U.S. State Department official played down on Thursday an announcement by Russia that it will add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year.

• June 18, 2015

Russia may toughen its response to sanctions imposed by the European Union over the crisis in Ukraine if the bloc extends its measures against Moscow, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday.

• June 18, 2015

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday Russia would add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) to its nuclear arsenal this year, prompting NATO's chief to accuse Moscow of dangerous "saber-rattling".

• June 16, 2015

China will soon complete some of its land reclamation on the Spratly islands in the disputed South China Sea, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, indicating that Beijing is close to setting up new outposts in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.

• June 16, 2015

A plan by Washington to station tanks and heavy weapons in NATO states on Russia's border would be the most aggressive U.S. act since the Cold War, and Moscow would retaliate by beefing up its own forces, a Russian defense official said on Monday.

• June 15, 2015

Ukraine protested to Russia on Saturday after mobs vandalized its embassy in Moscow and its consulate in Rostov-on-Don overnight, a day after Russia made a similar protest to Ukraine over damage to the Russian consulate in Kharkiv.

• June 13, 2015