On November 1, the fourth session of the Kazakhstani-Kyrgyzstani Intergovernmental Council met in Bishkek. The meeting sought to realize the agenda articulated by Kazakhstani Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov, who noted “the mutual desire of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to address urgent issues on water and the... MORE

At the October 24 summit of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Minsk, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev suggested that Turkey may wish to join the Custom Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. According to Nazarbayev, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reached out to him... MORE

There is a widespread perception among the foreign business community in China that there has been a concerted crackdown on multinational companies since China’s new government took power in March. There have been many headline-grabbing cases in which multi-national corporations (MNCs) faced legal or regulatory... MORE

On Saturday, November 9, China will begin a major meeting on economic policy, expected to produce major statements of intent for reform. The outcomes of this meeting will be mainly economic policies, but as a headline statement about the direction of China under the Fifth-Generation... MORE

On October 24 and 25, Belarus hosted two high-level meetings of heads of state of the Supreme Economic Council of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEc) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). While these gatherings enabled their participants to discuss a wide range of issues... MORE

According to the Legatum Global Prosperity Index (LGPI), Belarus is a country with average prosperity: it is 58th out of 142 countries for which the index in question has been just published (www.svaboda.org/content/article/25150395.html?). Much like on the Human Development Index, according to the LGPI ranking,... MORE

Inaugurated on October 29, 2013, the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey, Istanbul’s undersea Marmaray railway tunnel is the world’s first connecting two continents and is designed to withstand earthquakes up to 9.0 on the Richter scale. Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep... MORE

The recent detention of senior executives of the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has highlighted a major question about China’s economic plans: Whether the Xi Jinping-Li Keqiang administration has finally decided to restructure the 110 or so yangqi, or state-owned enterprise (SOE) groupings. Li has... MORE

China’s trade-backed charm offensive has reached India and the United Kingdom, as Chinese leaders signed a raft of trade deals with the United Kingdom and a border pact with India that may reduce incidents along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). These follow high-profile trade... MORE

Suspending the construction of large infrastructure projects is one of the primary accusations that President Mikheil Saakashvili and his team make against the government of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili in the run up to the presidential elections scheduled for October 27. These projects would arguably... MORE