Based on the words of the Russian leadership and the actions of local officials, the country has entered a new stage of confrontation with the West and now has to prepare for looming war. Speaking, on November 22, at a meeting of defense ministry leaders... MORE

Armenia and the European Union signed a Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) at the fifth Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels, on November 24 (Armradio.am, Eeas.europa.eu, November 24). CEPA, which took nearly two years of consultations and negotiations to come to fruition, replaces the Association... MORE

Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey signed a new agreement dedicated to launching the Lapis Lazuli transit corridor during a pentalateral meeting at the seventh Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA), held on November 15, in Ashgabat (Azernews, November 15). The finalized document was... MORE

During President Trump’s trip to Beijing and the ASEAN Summit in November 2017, President Trump and President Xi confirmed that the future of U.S.-Chinese relations will focus largely on opportunities for U.S. and Chinese businesses, potential security cooperation, and ongoing points of friction. The ASEAN... MORE

Though superpower diplomacy dominated coverage of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) leaders summit in November, China’s upgrading of a free-trade agreement with Chile served to highlight the strength of an economic and political relationship that it has built with the country, and the... MORE

During his visits to Dhaka, Bangladesh and Naypyitaw, Myanmar on November 18 and 19, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi put forward a three-phase plan to resolve the Rohingya crisis. First, Wang called for a ceasefire in Myanmar’s devastated Rakhine state, which is at the center... MORE

Since President Shavkat Mirziyaev’s state visit to Moscow in April 2017, bilateral relations between his country of Uzbekistan and Russia have been steadily expanding. And the frequency of subsequent bilateral exchanges suggests that this trend will most likely continue with the full support of both... MORE

Despite being the second-largest oil producer and exporter in the former Soviet Union, only behind Russia, Kazakhstan has been historically plagued by chronic deficits of fuel for domestic consumption. National energy security is at the top of the country’s priority list, yet little progress has... MORE

For most of the last hundred years, Russia was chronically unable to provide its citizens with sufficiently high quality or quantity of foodstuff. All the “heroic efforts” of the Soviet people culmi­nated in the fact that during 1980–1985, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)... MORE

China’s international rivers are becoming a focal point for contests over control of natural resources. China, in its powerful position as headwater nation, continues to actively promote hydropower development domestically and internationally. When downstream nations rely on un-dammed rivers for fisheries and irrigation, this puts... MORE