As Azerbaijan's neighbors, Georgia and Russia, commemorated the anniversary of the military conflict which erupted in August 2008, Azerbaijan showcased its foreign policy as both balanced and independent. Several high level presidential visits to Baku this summer indicate that the Azerbaijani capital is becoming the... MORE

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's August 6 visit to Ankara for talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured some twenty agreements covering energy, trade and other fields. Consequently, Ankara has made its most immediate priority to lift the regulation requiring the full inspection... MORE

To mark the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact by Russia (USSR) and Nazi Germany on August 23, 1939, the Foreign Intelligence Service (Sluzba Vneshnei Rzvedki or SVR) published a book of declassified intelligence reports and documents to prove that "the Molotov-Ribbentrop... MORE

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's August 14 meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi illustrated how this business-centered "strategic partnership" can distort or weaken German foreign policy. In that meeting the Chancellor failed to mention (or perhaps to deem worth mentioning) three major Russian actions... MORE

China’s economic ascent since the early 2000s has generated more equanimity than the fear its military rise caused in the mid-1990s, which led to accelerated concerns in the international community about a “China threat.”  While the Chinese military continues to modernize and its defense budget... MORE

China created a stir late last year when it announced that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) would commence policing the Gulf of Aden for Somali pirates. Two PLAN destroyers and a combat logistics ship arrived on station off the Horn of Africa this past... MORE

During the violent ethnic clashes between the Turkic Uyghurs and Han Chinese, in China's northwestern province of Xinjiang on July 5-6, Sino-Turkish relations soured as a result of Turkish public opinion and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan harshly criticizing the Chinese government's handling of the... MORE

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi on August 14 -their third bilateral meeting thus far this year- in an atmosphere of conviviality staged primarily for German television channels. The German electoral campaign and three major enterprise bankruptcies spurred Merkel's decision... MORE

An Ankara-based think-tank, Uluslararasi Stratejik Arastirmalar Kurumu (USAK), announced the findings of its 2009 public opinion poll on Turkish perceptions of foreign policy (www.usak.org.tr, August 14). The survey shows that the Turkish people prioritize national interests over global causes, and a visible increase in their... MORE

On August 10 President Dmitry Medvedev accused President Viktor Yushchenko of taking Ukraine on an "anti-Russian course" (www.blog.kremlin.ru, August 10). Moscow also recently engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions (EDM, July 31). The two Ukrainian diplomats expelled were Ukraine's General-Consul in St.Petersburg Natalia Prokopovych and Oleh... MORE