Belarus refused to attend the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Moscow on June 14. The summit made decisions to enlarge the size of collective rapid deployment forces, the scope of their missions, and the legal basis of their operations.President Alyaksandr Lukashenka cancelled the... MORE

Data recently released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) has raised expectations that the economy might be on its way to recovery. According to TurkStat, the capacity utilization rate within the Turkish manufacturing sector increased for the third consecutive month in May (www.tuik.gov.tr, June 10).... MORE

A mass riot induced by the developing economic crisis, served to confirm the identity of the real boss and decision maker in Russia. While Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was speaking to the World Economic Forum in St. Petersburg on June 4, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin... MORE

On June 6-7 the Economic Forum in St. Petersburg had a far more somber atmosphere and a greatly reduced entertainment program than last year, when Russia was still portrayed as an "island of stability" in the sea of troubles. The central event was again the... MORE

With its 25,000 employees, four major production plants in as many German states, generating business for thousands of German suppliers and dealerships, and a traditional iconic status, Opel has become a highly sensitive issue in this election year in Germany. The company is loss-making and... MORE

A "friends-of-Putin" consortium is about to acquire the German automobile manufacturer Opel, a subsidiary of the bankrupt U.S. company General Motors. The move is seen as the largest industrial acquisition in Europe by Russian interests since 1991. It marks an advance in the expansion of... MORE

The Kremlin has reiterated its pledges to implement sizable infrastructure development projects in Mongolia in an attempt to boost bilateral economic ties. On ?May 13, the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Mongolia, urging the country to create new major joint ventures and develop agricultural... MORE

On May 25, the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presented his budget address during a Kremlin meeting with cabinet members and parliamentary chairmen. "In 2009, unfortunately, we expect a sharper fall in GDP than we had thought," Medvedev said. "The global economic crisis is far from... MORE

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is home to 22 percent of the world’s population, but has only 7 percent of its total arable land. Following the Chinese people's recovery from the humanitarian disaster of the "Great Famine," which according to one authoritative account contributed... MORE

Against the backdrop of the reeling global economy, Taiwan-China rapprochement has shown steady and, at times, dramatic progress.  The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) put forward by Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) administration under President Ma Ying-jeou is being used by Taipei and Beijing as the main... MORE