The meeting was initiated jointly by the Centre and the UNDP Office as part of a multi-year project aimed at introducing IWRM principles in Kazakhstan's legal and institutional framework. The event was also supported by the European Union, International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea and the Government of Finland, the press service of the OSCE Centre in Astana reports. READ MORE

Russia is the only major trading nation that has not yet joined the World Trade Organization — even after years of negotiations with the United States and other member states. This could finally change, however, if the Obama administration can resolve long-troublesome concerns. READ MORE

After the declarations of Alexander Lukashenko in Astana about the prospects of Kazakh oil supplies to Belarus experts close to Belarusian authorities started to persuade people that Kazakhstan is evidently interested in cooperation with our country as it opens a direct access to European market. The situation is represented in such a way that state of unsettlement of some issues of the CU impedes to involve Kazakhstan into the new way of hydro carbons supply to Europe. However, the reaction of Kazakhstan on these songs of Belarusian alarms looks pragmatically reserved. READ MORE

In the past three decades the Islamic Republic of Iran has developed a well-earned sense of paranoia. First, in September 1980 Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in what he thought would be a quick military victory, but which quickly turned into an eight-year bloody slugfest, leaving an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 dead before the guns fell silent. READ MORE