Germany reiterated its position on Wednesday that it wants Turkey to be bound to Europe but added that it is not yet ready for EU membership. “Turkey's direction is Europe. We place great importance on deepening mutual ties and binding Turkey to Europe,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told a joint news conference after breakfast with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoğlu, in İstanbul. READ MORE

The US Ambassador to Tajikistan, Ken Gross, announced on June 25 that the US plans to open a military training center in Tajikistan pending the signing of related agreements with the Tajik side. The proposed center, to be located 45 kilometers (km) from the capital, Dushanbe, would provide Tajik armed forces with counternarcotics and antiterrorist training. Gross emphasized that the center, with a price tag of $10 million, did not seek to establish a US military presence in Tajikistan. READ MORE

Having already been pummeled by rising fuel prices and political instability in recent months, the creation of a Customs Union among Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia threatens to deal yet another economic blow to Kyrgyzstan, and is exerting pressure on Bishkek to decide whether to cast its lot with Moscow or the West. READ MORE

The European Union is just months away from launching a new unified diplomatic service. But any hopes that the new structure will bring greater focus and effectiveness to the bloc's foreign policy are probably premature, analysts say. READ MORE

A six-year archive of classified military documents made public on Sunday offers an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal. READ MORE

On June 29-30, Astana hosted the High-Level OSCE Conference on Tolerance and Non-Discrimination, aimed to help in coping with obligations and promoting the OSCE values related to tolerance, non-discrimination and intercultural dialogue – the key priorities of Kazakhstan's chairmanship in 2010. Over 600 politicians and public figures from dozens of countries have discussed the value of legislative processes, law enforcement bodies, national education systems and mass media in combating public manifestations of intolerance and promoting the idea of mutual understanding through dialogue. READ MORE

Iran has expressed willingness to have talks with the European Union on its nuclear programme after the month of Ramadan ends in early September, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sunday. READ MORE

UN court set to rule on legality of Kosovo's 2008 unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia

The US has pledged to back Kosovo's 2008 unilateral declaration of independence regardless of a UN court verdict on its legality due today. READ MORE

Central Asia arrived at a turning point last weekend far removed from the history of Genghis Khan riding out to conquer the world, as it sought peacekeepers from Europe. Russia, which has provided security to the region for the past century and more is stepping aside - unable or unwilling, and possibly incapable of performing that role anymore. READ MORE

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has met with President Nursultan Nasarbeyev of Kazakhstan to discuss trade and investment. The visit draws her five-day tour of Asia to a close. READ MORE

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group released a statement on Saturday encouraging the peaceful settlement of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, the OSCE website said. READ MORE

President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday reaffirmed his commitment for Afghan police and soldiers to take charge of security nationwide by 2014 and urged his international backers to distribute more of their development aid through the government. READ MORE

The OSCE failed to agree on sending an international police force to Kyrgyzstan in the wake of June's ethnic clashes between that may have killed 2,000 people. A decision on the matter is expected next week. READ MORE

Transatlantic Taskforce on Development Blog Series. READ MORE

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan met  with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski who is paying an official visit to Armenia upon the invitation of E. Nalbandyan. The meeting launched in face-to-face format and continued with the participation of delegations, MFA reported. READ MORE

Relations between republics of South Caucasus play an important geopolitical role for Russia given that this near-border region is ethnically close to citizens of Russia's south and is highly integrated into Russia's economy. On one hand, establishment of new states in the territory of Soviet republics drastically changed relations between them making it possible for the West to set up a base to put pressure on Russia's south. We considered Georgian-Turkish relations and it is much more important how Georgia and Azerbaijan, two close neighbors, communicate. READ MORE

The Armenian elite’s way of thinking and Armenia’s foreign policy have been influenced by the history of the Armenian people, particularly the tragic events of 1915, when near 1.5 million Armenians were exterminated in the Ottoman Empire and a million people were spread all over the world, forming the Diaspora. READ MORE

How does Kazakhstan’s chairmanship differ from the previous ones? READ MORE

On July 6th Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that with definite exceptions the country accepts the suggestion of the cochairmen-states of the OSCE Minsk Group, developed on the basis of Helsinki principles. READ MORE

At the end of a trip intended to reassure Russia’s neighbors that the Obama administration would not forget them in its push to improve relations with Moscow, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton resorted to the simplest of diplomatic formulations, telling Georgia, the United States “can walk and chew gum at the same time.” Mrs. Clinton repeated the argument like a mantra during her five-day swing through Ukraine, Poland, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia: that the “reset” will not force the United States to sacrifice its influence or policies in the post-Soviet space. READ MORE

The subject of Transnistria regulation seems to return into the list of priorities of native Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Despite the scepsis of last months, related to indefiniteness around the candidate and the level of authorities of a future special representative to Ukraine on the issues of Transnistria regulation, and also the attempt of Russia and Germany to establish new grounds to discuss frozen conflicts (the role of Ukraine, choosing words carefully, is not clear), Kiev finally decided again to turn to the subject of Transnistria regulation. READ MORE

Bronislaw Komorowski, the candidate of Poland's ruling pro-business Civic Platform party, has become the country's next president. Komorowski beat Jaroslaw Kaczynski by a margin of seven percent of the vote. READ MORE

The interview of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Poland to Armenia Zdzisław Raczyński. READ MORE

ASTANA - Sharing positive experiences and best practices in promoting tolerance and non-discrimination to effectively face threats to stability in the OSCE area is the focus of the High-Level Conference on Tolerance and Non-Discrimination that started in Astana today. READ MORE

Vlad Filat, who leads Moldova’s pro-Western government, recently visited Luxembourg where euronews asked him about planned early elections, about solutions for Transnistria and integration with Europe, which he says is “an absolute priority” for his government. READ MORE

After a long process of negotiations, Azerbaijan signed three new agreements on 7 June, 2010 with Turkey for the sale and transportation of its natural gas to European countries via Turkish territory. The conclusion of these agreements has welcome in Brussels which sent its representative to the 17th Caspian Oil and Gas Conference held recently in Baku (2-3 June) to secure so that there can be no failure of its signature according to one EU representative in Azerbaijan. READ MORE

His core conservative supporters see Jaroslaw Kaczynski as an honest patriot who will champion Poland's national interests in the European Union and beyond if he wins Sunday's presidential election run-off. READ MORE

The second vote for Germany's next president has again been indecisive. The coalition government's candidate has twice failed to secure an absolute majority. In the third round, a simple majority will suffice. READ MORE