The ATOM Project is a new international initiative to build global support for a permanent end to nuclear weapons testing and the total abolition of nuclear weapons. It was launched at a parliamentary assembly in Astana, Kazakhstan on August 29, 2012, the UN International Day Against Nuclear Tests, established in recognition of the closing of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site on that day in 1991 by the president of Kazakhstan. READ MORE

More often lately the characters of publications and TV-programs of the European press have been the natives from Asia. And these are not worldwide famous scientists, or actors of arts and culture, as we would like them to be. More often public tribune is occupied by personalities, talking about their complicated interrelations with authorities in their motherlands. Instead of studying culture of other people more often we go deep into dirty laundry of run-away criminals, flowing to us from the whole world. And then we talk about crisis of multiculturalism… READ MORE

Russia can’t be neutral towards the trend of “by-pass strategy” of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, their foreign policy interests and Eurasian plans  READ MORE

Kazakhstan has recently participated in international military exercises with its NATO partners as well as through the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in what at first sight appears to confirm that its multi-vector foreign policy also strongly influences its defense and security policy. Nonetheless, the scope, intensity and seriousness attached to the country’s defense and security relations with Moscow and its involvement in the CSTO goes far above the lip service it pays to cooperation with NATO. This critical distinction in Astana’s defense policy is amply demonstrated by the country hosting the CSTO’s first peacekeeping exercises from October 8 to October 17 (Interfax, October 3; see EDM, September 11). READ MORE

NATO Defence Ministers took stock of progress in improving Allied defence capabilities and endorsed the first stage of planning for the post-2014 training and assistance mission in Afghanistan, in a two-day meeting in Brussels. READ MORE

Our great and powerful editor has requested—nay, demanded!—a series of posts exploring how a U.S.-China war might unfold. That sounds like a request for prophecy. But making predictions is a dicey business, as the equally great and powerful sage Yogi Berra reportedly observed—especially when they’re about the future. The Naval Diplomat is no clairvoyant. Undeterred, we nonetheless commence a five-post cycle exploring some of the big ideas likely to shape each phase of a Far Eastern maelstrom. READ MORE

Lithuania's three opposition parties – the Labor Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Order and Justice Party – agreed to set up a working group in the early hours of Monday for talks on a ruling coalition and agreed to support each other's candidates in the run-off ballot for the Seimas in single-member constituencies. READ MORE

 Today in Brussels, chaired by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, was held the meeting of the North Atlantic Council with countries - contributors to the operation of the International Security Assistance Force in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. This is reported in the press service of the Defense Ministry, for UNN. READ MORE

Ex-Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s son Maxim has been arrested in London, the Kyrgyz presidential press service said. READ MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent visits to the Central Asian states, including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, demonstrates the country's willing to "cement" its relations with them, the U.S. expert on Central Asia Bruce Pannier believes. READ MORE