Recent events around Belarus create the impression that if one assumes Belarus is a bridge between the two flanks of Europe, the traffic on that bridge is asymmetric. Serious business comes from its eastern end and nothing but reprimands and exhortations originate from the west.... MORE

The agreement between Russia and the United States to destroy the Syrian arsenal of chemical weapons was signed in Geneva last weekend on September 14, after several days of strenuous negotiations between delegations led by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State... MORE

On September 13, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held its 13th session of the Council of Heads of State, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in a bid to strengthen cooperation on pressing security and economic challenges. The parties signed the Bishkek Declaration, calling for a joint struggle... MORE

“Complementarity,” the term purportedly denoting Armenia’s policy of balance between Russia and the West, has reached the end of the road, and that end is Russia. Long assumed to be the guiding principle of Armenia’s foreign policy, “complementarity” has lost any meaning with Armenia’s decision... MORE

On September 6–8, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid an official visit to Kazakhstan, amid his ten-day journey across Central Asia that had previously taken him to Turkmenistan where gas production at the world’s second-largest gas field was inaugurated. Xi Jinping’s visit to the Kazakhstani capital... MORE

Considerable international media attention on the Syria crisis focused on the apparently deft handling of the diplomatic track by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Yet, Russian diplomacy, which succeeded in presenting Moscow as a critical player in the pursuit of a non-military option against Damascus, also... MORE

Several days ago (September 10), reconstruction and expansion works at the Verkhny Lars border checkpoint were completed. The checkpoint, located in Georgia’s Kazbegi district on the highway historically known as the Georgian Military Road, is the only legally functioning border crossing between Russia and Georgia.... MORE

During the last week (see EDM, September 12), the diplomatic dance around Syria has acquired the intensity of a whirling dervish, but the civil war continues very much as usual. This disconnect answers perfectly the ambitions of President Vladimir Putin, who has managed to make... MORE

Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned foreign officials and diplomats over taking unsanctioned visits to the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia, saying this contradicts international law. Many governmental agencies in Baku have stated that such visits, made without prior notification of the relevant authorities of Azerbaijan, are... MORE

The prime minister of the Republic of Belarus, Mikhail Myasnikovich, led a large delegation September 3–5, on the first state visit to Mongolia since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations in 1992. The Mongolian government treated the visit as high level, and media coverage was... MORE