Polish PM Pledges Support for Shale Gas Exploration. READ MORE

The negotiations between the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Erdogan took place in Moscow, the most important result of which was the abolishment of visa regime. However the main subject covered energy relations: the Kremlin specified clearly, that it is ready to refuse of the “South Stream” piping, if Turkey won’t give the permission on it in favor of the condensed natural gas production plant. It’s hardly worth to take the kind of intentions seriously: Moscow has already used the kind of pressure tactics in order to force the partner-state to choose more flexible line. READ MORE

President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė met with President of Croatia Ivo Josipović, who arrived in Vilnius on a working visit. READ MORE

The European Union has been engaged with the five countries in Central Asia from the very moment they gained their independence in the early 1990s. At the beginning of the 21st century, the globalization process has required a new partnership to be established between them, and Central Asia became one of the objectives of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy. READ MORE

Success of European policy of neighborhood depends on official recognition by the EU of the existence of fundamental differences between East and South. The most important of them is that Eastern partners (in distinction from South ones) possess European intentions and prospects. READ MORE

Of all the decisions that a president must make, none calls for more clarity than the one to go to war. Thus far, President Obama’s move to join other nations in intervening militarily in Libya appears to have generated confusion instead — both as to the scope of the mission and to its ultimate end. READ MORE

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk Wednesday rejected a German call on Poland to cancel the planned construction of nuclear power plants, saying the Polish public supports the project. READ MORE

Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s, March 16-17 Russia visit capped a four-week period of spectacular changes to Russian energy transit projects, in the Black Sea and beyond. During these critical weeks, Russia abandoned the Trans-Balkan  oil pipeline project, which it had planned for more than a decade to form a transcontinental oil corridor, stretching from Kazakhstan to the Aegean Sea. The Kremlin also abandoned (in all but name) the South Stream gas pipeline project, designed to have stretched from the Black Sea into eight European countries. Moscow also had to register the stagnation of the Trans-Anatolian oil pipeline project, designed to connect Kazakhstan via Russia, the Black Sea, and Turkey with the Mediterranean. READ MORE

The Libyan war has now begun. It pits a coalition of European powers plus the United States, a handful of Arab states and rebels in Libya against the Libyan government. The long-term goal, unspoken but well understood, is regime change — displacing the government of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and replacing it with a new regime built around the rebels. READ MORE

Alliance has "no plans to act," but is preparing for eventualities. READ MORE

President Obama still supports construction of new nuclear plants in the United States, despite the unfolding nuclear crisis in Japan, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said. READ MORE

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayiip Erdogan arrives in Moscow on March 15 on an official visit-This event is to become historic, because the visit will coincide with the 90th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the renewed Russia and Turkey after WWI. The director of the Turkish Centre for International Relations and Strategic Analysis, Sinan Ogan, told the VK correspondent about the visit and its context. READ MORE

The U.S. is planning to help Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan develop their navies, emphasizing the increasing importance of Caspian Sea security and the possibility of the sea's militarization, with all five bordering countries (including Iran and Russia) planning to build up their strength in the oil- and gas-rich sea. READ MORE

As Japan struggles to come to terms with the consequences of the worst earthquake, experts say that keeping the country's nuclear power plants under control is of utmost importance. READ MORE

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski arrived in the United States on Monday for a six-day visit including meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday and with Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel B. Poneman and other officials. The visit is meant to promote the U.S.-Polish alliance and reaffirm Warsaw’s commitment to a close relationship with Washington after lukewarm visits from Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski in December 2010 and Defense Minister Bogdan Klich in October 2010, during which Washington refused to give concrete military commitments to Poland. READ MORE

China and Russia are leading a new effort at the United Nations to curb the threat of piracy off the coast of Somalia and defeat al-Qaeda-linked terrorists fighting to seize control of the Horn of Africa nation. READ MORE

Early results in Estonia’s parliamentary election on Sunday showed the ruling coalition headed for a victory, in a remarkable show of support for a government that has imposed harsh austerity measures to lift the country out of recession. READ MORE

According to preliminary results, most votes in the local elections of 27th February were won by the opposition social democrats – 21.4%. The left for the past three years have been criticising the policy of governing the conservatives/Christian democrats and of the extremely unpopular prime minister and the party leader Andrius Kubilius.  Victory for the left, however, is not overwhelming. READ MORE

Lithuania and Norway foster similar foreign policy objectives and aim to intensify bilateral political and economic relations. This was agreed on 8 March in Vilnius, by Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. READ MORE

Ashkhabad and Baku Start with Evaluation of Ecologic Risks. READ MORE

NATO has a pipeline system designed to ensure that its requirements for petroleum products and their distribution can be met at all times. READ MORE

Several pipeline projects are competing with one another to bring to life the southern gas corridor – a vague blueprint to supply Europe with gas from the Caspian and the Middle East. EurActiv takes a look at the various European initiatives, including their common competitor: Russia's South Stream project. READ MORE

The Russian side has proposed to hold the next meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, where the negotiations would continue, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told reporters on Saturday. READ MORE