Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said the European Union is pursuing “too much” a policy of energy-source diversification and assured his country can provide “good and economically viable” supplies. 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

Success stories in what the European Union calls “the neighborhood” have been hard to come by. First Georgia, then Ukraine, and most recently Moldova have all been big EU hopes. But, in each case, those hopes were dashed. Unfortunately for the EU, this year’s annual summit with Ukraine (on November 22) will likely showcase this failure. READ MORE

In late October Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, visited Brussels where he met with Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, the European Council president, Herman Von Rompuy, and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The parties discussed energy and economic relations, Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and regional security challenges in the post-Soviet space. Astana and Brussels also signed a series of documents to boost economic relations. READ MORE

On 8 October, the session of the third Parliamentary Assembly of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine took place. It placed the focus on energy security challenges and perspectives in Eastern and Central Europe. All the three countries are dependent on Russian energy and are aware that it is necessary to diversify consumption of energy and import of its resources, as well as to define a more favorable regime for energy cooperation with Russia. Another question is: how to reach this goal? READ MORE

Presidents have often turned to foreign policy after domestic setbacks - from Ronald Reagan's Latin American tour and speech calling the Soviet Union the "focus of evil in the modern world" in the months after his party's 1982 congressional losses to Bill Clinton's escape to Indonesia and the Philippines following his own midterm trouncing a dozen years later. Both found redemption at the polls. READ MORE

Security is a complex notion and can be approached in different ways. At a basic level it could mean feeling safe in your own home – it could mean having a home in the first place. Security is also about confidence in government and in everyday encounters with officialdom. Security begins with the sustainability of resources and the availability of opportunities – for education or for work, regardless of gender, religion or ethnicity. It is rooted in the inviolability of rights and in the belief that there is adequate recourse if those rights are violated. READ MORE

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is in Germany once again, for a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel. His working visit will last two days: November 25-26. The entire European Union (EU) and the rest of Europe are watching this visit particularly closely. This is always the case when Moscow and Berlin are planning to redesign the architecture of Europe. Now Europe is paying additional attention to Putin's visit because the Euro is ailing and virtually all EU member states are in the grips of the financial crisis while Germany remains the only one in recovery. READ MORE

Earlier this year, a group led by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (which included me) issued a report on a new strategic concept called “NATO 2020.” The report recommended that NATO open its door to new members while seeking a more constructive relationship with Russia. We outlined a dual strategy of reassuring the NATO allies that their interests would be defended while engaging with the Kremlin in a manner consistent with the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act and the 2002 Rome Declaration on the NATO-Russia relationship. READ MORE

The following commentary was sent to EurActiv by Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former president of Poland and current advisor to the Kazakh government, on the occasion of the launch from Kazakhstan of one of the world’s largest commercial satellites. READ MORE