Eight years ago, on 29 March 2004, Lithuania joined NATO. Today there are several aspects which should be discussed with regard to the membership. At the beginning let me remind several interim stops in Lithuania’s road toward the Alliance. READ MORE

By actual freezing of NABUCCO project the attempts (starting from mid of 2011) to rehabilitate already forgotten (for the first time the idea of such gas pipeline was announced in 1996) project of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline have intensified. In March 2012 the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov visited Ukraine.  In Kiev for uncovered joy of Ukrainian authorities Berdymukhamedov announced the idea of construction of the pipeline Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia (with optional branch to Ukraine) – Turkey – the European Union (EU) for supplies of gas to Europe by-passing Russia. The capacity of planned gas pipeline should comprise up to 25 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually. READ MORE

Jeyranchel, in northeastern Azerbaijan covers an area of about 62 square kilometres just along the Georgian border. It was also the site of a live firing range, used from 1955 until 1991 by the former Soviet Army. Now the range lies abandoned and unused, with unexploded munitions littering the ground around it. READ MORE

There will be no base of the Alliance in Ulyanovsk, not Even Its Representatives READ MORE

Recently the situation over  the projects of construction of nuclear power plants in Baltic region – Kaliningrad region of Russia, Belarus and Lithuania hasn’t become more clear. Only Lithuania can boast with some successes of its project regarding investments, which in the beginning of April initialed the wording of treaty with Japanese concern Hitachi. READ MORE

CA-NEWS (CA) - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Alliance wants to include a number of Central Asian countries in NATO deliberations on the future development in Afghanistan, reported the Silk Road Newsline. READ MORE

Is China a peaceful nation that only wants to turn out Apple iPads and iPhones? Or is the Middle Kingdom bent on attacking the U.S.? Beijing is the long, and strong, pole in the tent for the U.S. military – and they know it. China is the new Soviet Union, and perhaps it should be. READ MORE

As campaigning continues ahead of the 6 May run-off for French president both candidates set out on Monday to court the more than six million people who voted for the far-right Front National party of Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s first round. READ MORE

“We, devoted allies in the very meaning of this word, have common interests and common concerns, as well as common actions to settle them.  The last is proved, in particular, by firm support from Poland of the prolongation of NATO mission on Baltic States Air Policing", -- said the President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves during yesterday’s and today’s meeting of the Heads of states of Estonia, Latvia and Poland held in Warsaw. READ MORE

Potential large shale gas deposits in Europe have raised hopes that the old continent may in the future rely less on oil and natural gas imports from Russia. However, fears of potential environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing and the lack of a clear policy by the European Union have led to the suspension of shale gas exploration in France and Bulgaria in the past year. In April, environmental protests spread to Romania raising concerns that shale gas exploration could be stalled in yet another EU state. READ MORE