President Dalia Grybauskaitė attended the meeting of Presidents of the Baltic States in Estonia. Discussing the goals and new challenges of the Baltic States the Presidents underlined that energy security and the ending of energy isolation of the region was currently a key priority for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. READ MORE

Valdai Club.com interview with Sergey Aleksashenko, Macroeconomic Research Director of the National Research University – Higher School of Economics.   READ MORE

The United States and China could be considered the two super powers, but one is dealing with the financial crisis and seeks to keep its dominant position in global politics, and the other pursues economic growth and expands its military power. This impression occurred during the summer discussions in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, when budget deficit problems were solved by raising the U.S. debt ceiling by several trillions dollars, and when the ratings agency Standard & Poor‘s downgraded the U.S. credit rating to AA+ from its top rank AAA. China criticized the economic policy pursued by the White House. READ MORE

Lately in Europe a mutual terroristic threat has been growing from the side of Western and Muslim cultures. READ MORE

Georgia remains committed to joining the European Union, said President Mikheil Saakashvili in an exclusive interview with EurActiv Poland. In a conciliatory gesture towards Moscow, the Georgian leader argued that closer ties between his country and the EU could also pave the way for more integration between Russia and the 27-nation bloc. READ MORE

I have taken note of President Medvedev's statement on missile defence. NATO's missile defence system, which NATO Heads of State and Government agreed to develop last year at the Lisbon Summit, is designed to defend against threats emanating from outside Europe and is not designed to alter the balance of deterrence. READ MORE

NATO and Kazakhstan actively cooperate on democratic, institutional, and defence reforms, and have developed practical cooperation in many other areas. The Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) lays out the overall programme of cooperation between Kazakhstan and NATO. The defence-related fields of cooperation are supported by the Planning and Review Process (PARP). READ MORE

The CSTO gives higher priority to the trainings of the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces (KSOR) in Armenia in 2012. This was declared during the press-conference in Yerevan by the Vice General Secretary of the Organization Valery Semerikov. READ MORE

Parting year 2011  has  been special for Lithuania, which took the relay of Chairmanship in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Community of Democracies. And if the Community has the extension task basing on definite principles, then within the territory of the Organization we can observe deviation from democratic promotion. Despite certain attempts of the OSCE human rights are still being violated commonly. That is why the Chairman-in-office has declared the intentions to give special focus to the promotion of human rights, freedom of press and civil society among the Organization’s member-states. Also such troublesome Lithuanian’s neighbor as Belarus has intensified this focus. READ MORE

Minister of Economy and Stable Development of Georgia Vera Kobalia considers economic relations of Lithuania and Georgia to be insufficient. She thinks that more can be expected, and that the main problems rest within the sphere of goods transportation and absence of direct communication between the two states. During an interview for DELFI she underlined that due to the embargo imposed by Russia in 2006 on Georgian goods, her country has only benefited, and entrance of Russia into WTO shall positively influence Georgian economy. In course of her visit to Vilnius the youngest minister in the team of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili Vera Kobalia answered the questions of DELFI, shared with her view on economic cooperation between Lithuania and Georgia, main problems and project of Georgian economy, talked about the opinion of Tbilisi on entrance of Russia into WTO and on the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
  READ MORE