On April 11, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Beijing during the latter’s lavish if brief state visit. Both sides naturally promised cooperation and to expand ties (Xinhua, April 11; China Daily, April 11). The visit marked the... MORE

Turkish-Syrian relations have been always problematic. Dating back to the Cold War, Syria’s support for the Kurdish militants of the Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK) was a major obstacle to efforts to normalize relations between the two countries until the 1998 Adana Accord allowed Syria and... MORE

The results of the March 2012 national survey by the Independent Institute for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (an entity funded by the United States) reveal that the number of Belarusians who trust President Lukashenka has risen to 34.5 percent, which is 10 percent higher than... MORE

On April 1, Turkey hosted the second meeting of the Friends of Syria group, which produced mixed results as to the future of the Syrian uprisings. While the meeting lent some legitimacy to the opposition organized around the Syrian National Council (SNC) and warned President... MORE

The Ukraine-EU association and free trade agreement will not be concluded this year, Kyiv has admitted after only part of the text of the agreement was initialed in Brussels on March 30. Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and EU negotiator Miroslav Lajcak initialed the... MORE

The Russian parliamentary elections in December 2011 inspired a wave of demonstrations against graft corruption and a rigged vote, as well as political rumblings across the country. Yet, in spite of it all, Vladimir Putin won a resounding victory in Russia’s March 4th presidential elections... MORE

Several Eurasian leaders were among the 54 heads of state, deputy prime ministers, or foreign ministers who attended the March 26-27 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea. The main objective of the summit was to prevent non-state actors such as terrorists or criminals from... MORE

Croatia’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister, Radimir Cacic, held talks with the Russian government and companies in Moscow on March 25-26, soliciting sweeping Russian investments in Croatia (“Breakthrough of ‘Putin’s empire’ in Croatia?” Vecernji List, March 28).The initiative originates this time in Zagreb,... MORE

The Republic of China (ROC) Navy appears to be moving forward with a long awaited program to build diesel submarines in Taiwan. A domestic submarine program—which was aborted under former President Chen Shui-bian’s administration—reportedly has been resuscitated in President Ma Ying-jeou’s second term. While talk... MORE

Within his first 100 days as President, Almazbek Atambayev has made a series of provocative statements regarding the status of both the Russian and US airbases in Kyrgyzstan. Russian media reported that Kremlin officials are frustrated by the President’s statements and have every reason to... MORE