The dynamics of international life of the passing year comprised a sound list of significant events, which are able to give a start for new large-scale transformations as many commentators think. They include – the launch of the “Eastern Partnership” program. This project has called different reactions among the states participating within “Eastern Partnership” as well as in neighboring capitals. The reaction was mainly emotional and unpredictable. It’s perfectly known that for example Warsaw gives a strategic meaning to this project. Moscow also sees a long-term effect, strategy but the aim of this strategy is observed in a different way. READ MORE

White Stream, the proposed gas pipeline from Georgia to Romania on the seabed of the Black Sea, is intended to maximize European gas imports from Central Asia through the E.U.-initiated Southern Corridor. The Corridor grand design spans Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and –with White Stream– also a maritime route to European Union territory via the Black Sea. At its other end, the Southern Corridor is premised on a trans-Caspian link to Turkmenistan for massive European imports of Central Asian gas. READ MORE

If EU policymakers and companies are not going to go to Caspian energy producers with serious offers for their hydrocarbons, Caspian producers will just have to come to the EU. That seems to be the message being sent by Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan as their state energy companies partner to build an oil pipeline heading West-ward. Plans for the so-called Baku-Black Sea pipeline were announced at the Atlantic Council’s Black Sea Energy and Economic Forum in Bucharest on Oct. 2 by Vitaliy Baylarbayov, Deputy Vice President of SOCAR, the state oil company of Azerbaijan. READ MORE

Despite the scrapping of US eastern European missile defense plans, Vice President Biden's trip to eastern Europe presents fresh alternatives and confirms its security concerns are still a US priority. READ MORE