President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė calls the decisions adopted by the European Council strategic and important for Lithuania and for the whole European Union. The Heads of States gathered in Brussels agreed that all Member States will perform stress tests on their banking systems in the effort to stabilise financial markets. According to President Dalia Grybauskaitė, testing in Lithuania will be performed by the central bank and the Ministry of Finance. READ MORE

The European Union and the United States apparently find it easier to take on the Iranian nuclear problem than the global financial crisis. On June 17, EU government chiefs agreed to new sanctions against Iran at a Brussels summit. U.S. President Barack Obama was no doubt pleased to hear the news, even though the U.S. and the EU had most likely coordinated the sanctions in advance. READ MORE

Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk intends to change a gas agreement with Russia, if it turns out that the part of needs could be covered by the gas produced from shale. This was stated by Prime Minister during the interview for Radiо Zet. According to his words, the agreement with Russia has not yet been ratified, so is it possible to make changes. However, the comments of Prime Minister can’t be accomplished, as it is impossible to estimate shale fields without extra tests. First results of drilling, starting in June, will be known only in a few months. And final results will be received only in two-three years. READ MORE

The OSCE and the Council of Europe should strengthen co-operation and avoid overlap to promote security on the basis of democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights, the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe Minister Antonio Miloshoski, told the OSCE Permanent Council READ MORE

F. Stephen Larrabee, an expert on Turkey at the RAND Corporation, says the days when Turkey was a "junior partner" of the United States are over. READ MORE

"The truly remarkable failings of the Western economic model now on display" may "give a renewed boost to Islamic radicalisation," writes Michael Emerson, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). READ MORE

The worsening ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan is hundreds of miles from U.S. and Russian bases in the central Asia country, but it poses thorny strategic dilemmas for both. READ MORE

The violence unleashed in Kyrgyzstan is being spun as ethnic rioting. The reality is a good deal more complex, and the blame can be laid directly at Russia's door. Russia's coup against the Bakiyev government which took power in the Tulip Revolution leveraged Uzbek separatists in the Osh Province to suppress Kyrgiz nationalist supporters of Bakiyev. READ MORE

Today's world contains two declining global powers (Russia and the US) and two emerging ones (China and the EU). While China's rise is unstoppable, the EU must establish its own foreign policy doctrine, which in an interdependent world must be one of "inclusiveness" and soft power, writes Romanian MEP Adrian Severin, vice-president of the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament, in an exclusive commentary. READ MORE

A crisis of confidence lies at the core of security challenges facing the OSCE region today, Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Konstantin Zhigalov said today at the opening of the OSCE Annual Security Review Conference. READ MORE