On Hungarian-Polish Chairmanship in the European Union in 2011 READ MORE

Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), filed in 1993, has been the longest accession saga in the history of the world trade body. Yet now, after bilateral deals with the US and the European Union that secured their support for the membership bid, Russia looks set to join the pantheon of rules-based global capitalism at some point next year. READ MORE

The EU needs more unity and less controversy and is not just about what France, Germany or the UK wants, Polish State Secretary for European Affairs Mikołaj Dowgielewicz told EurActiv.fr in an interview. He discussed the plans of the Polish EU Presidency, which will begin in July 2011. READ MORE

Armenia finds itself in an unfriendly neighborhood and engaged in a highly militarized 20-year territorial dispute with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. It has long pulled off a diplomatic coup, maintaining simultaneous close relations with Iran, Russia and the United States, all three of which it relies on for protection, investment and trade. READ MORE

The Geneva Discussions resulted in steps towards gradual normalization of the situation on the ground said Bolat Nurgaliyev, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, following a meeting in Geneva today. READ MORE

Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt has told EUobserver that the prospect of an EU free trade pact is better for the future of Moldova than cheap Russian gas as neighbouring powers seek to build influence in post-election Moldova. READ MORE

Despite many unsolved problems which were planned to be solved by the introduction of the armed forces of the US and their allies from Afghanistan, a gradual withdrawal of the troops is expected to start  in 2011. How will affect the withdrawal of the coalition troops the situation in the states, bordering Afghanistan? PhD in History, Deputy Director of the institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of A. Dohish of the Academy of Science of the Republic of Tajikistan Viktor Dubovitsky shares his forecasts with the Politkom.ru readers. READ MORE

Russia's growing oil exports to Asia and the Baltic have unsettled European traders and refiners, who fear shortages on the Black Sea and in Central Europe should Russian output stall or decline. READ MORE

In a thought-provoking forecast, CEPA Senior Fellow Edward Lucas anticipates Russia’s palpable decline by 2020, having fallen behind Brazil, India and China. Meanwhile, Central Europe will be on the ascent, with the three Baltic States “overtaking the sluggish, debt-ridden economies of Southern Europe.” READ MORE

On 3-4 December, around 250 experts gathered in Antalya, Turkey, at a major international security conference entitled “The New Strategic Concept and NATO towards Year 2020”. Participants included high level officials, international security experts, opinion formers and diplomats from Turkey and other NATO member and partner countries, as well as representatives from the media and Atlantic Treaty Associations. READ MORE

A few years ago it was common to refer to Russia as an "energy superpower". High global energy prices prior to the global financial crisis and Russia's control over Central Asian oil and gas exports underscored the seemingly irrefutable proposition of Moscow's influence. READ MORE

In its decade-long slog to secure Afghanistan, the United States has juggled contradictory foreign policies in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the fragile Central Asian states with key supporting roles in the war. There’s the policy of engaging the two post-Soviet states for their own sake, promoting good governance, human rights, and business ties – the usual grab-bag of US diplomacy. Then there’s the policy of using them as logistical hubs in the Afghanistan war. READ MORE

Indeed, conjurer Saakashvili's left hand does not know what his right hand is doing. While Mishiko is spreading himself and shouting from all the rostrums that Georgia stands for peace in the whole world and he himself is a white dove carrying an olive branch, the president's deeds speak for themselves. Saakashvili is a poor peacemaker. It's not without reason that Moscow, Sukhum and Tskhinval took the breast-beating and vowing and protesting that there will be no more firing in an equally skeptic way. How can one trust a person who is promising peace and getting ready for a war behind the scenes? READ MORE

Western energy firms are poised to strike deals in Turkmenistan as the Central Asian state opens up its lucrative oil and gas reserves after years of isolation. READ MORE

Within the past two days the whole world followed intently the course of the OSCE high-level summit in Astana. Late at night, after the long and heavy discussions, the participants of the Summit voted foradoption of the Astana Declaration Towards a Security Community. The mass media have already started publishing the comments and views of the participants, international experts and politicians on the event. It should be noted that after the adoption of the document, the representatives of several states and international structures expressed their regret over insufficient concrete formulations of the Summit's final document, but all of them agreed that the participating states reaffirmed their full adherence to the UN charter and all fundamental principles and commitments of the OSCE. Thus, a representative of the European Union said: "The Summit document confirms our joint vision of a security community for the future". READ MORE

I was surprised to learn on a visit to Brussels last week that the confusion is worse than I had thought among Europeans regarding Nabucco, the object of a long and thus-far-quixotic effort to connect Central Asian natural gas supplies with Europe. READ MORE

2 December 2010 - The first OSCE Summit in 11 years concluded today with Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev welcoming the work of Heads of State and Government from the 56 OSCE participating States, saying their adoption of the Astana Commemorative Declaration reconfirmed the Organization's comprehensive approach to security based on trust and transparency. READ MORE

A potentially seismic geo-political shift is taking place in Europe. The pan-European settlement that has eluded the continent since the fall of the Berlin War is emerging into view. READ MORE

Russia will have to build up its nuclear forces if the United States fails to ratify the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty the two countries signed this year, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warns in an upcoming CNN interview. READ MORE

As is known Kazakhstan, as OSCE Chair, put a lot of efforts to settle conflicts between the countries in the Organization's area of responsibility. Thus, Kazakhstan paid much attention to the protracted conflict in Transnistria since the first days of its presidency in the Organization. READ MORE