On April 6-7, Istanbul hosted the second United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) forum, co-chaired by Turkey and Spain under the auspices of the UN to foster international dialogue and cooperation. The forum was attended by five heads of state, 26 foreign ministers, 11 ministers... MORE

Anti-Americanism has noticeably mellowed in the Russian mainstream media since the London summit between presidents Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev. Some commentators emphasize that strategic arms control is the easiest problem to tackle, but the new positive tone in the dialogue makes the habitual U.S.-bashing... MORE

President Barack Obama's visit to Ankara was well received by the majority of Turkish people, apart from a minority in Ankara complaining about traffic jams due to enhanced security measures. Obama's visit to Turkey was a well planned public diplomacy event by U.S. policy planners.... MORE

NATO members took important decisions during the April 3-4 summit, celebrating the Alliance's 60th anniversary. Following intense negotiations to ameliorate Turkey's reservations, on April 4 NATO leaders named Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Ramussen as their new Secretary-General. Turkey's agreement sparked controversy in Turkey as... MORE

It took an eleventh-hour lobbying effort by the separatist leader of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity to avert a serious fiscal crisis in the breakaway republic. On March 26, Kokoity led a delegation from South Ossetia to meet the Minister of Regional Development, Victor Basargin and... MORE

In his second speech of the year, the Amir of the al-Qaeda-allied Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, has criticized President Obama’s Iraq plan as deceitful and announced a new military campaign entitled “The Good Harvest” (al-hanein.info, March 17). The campaign is designed... MORE

President Viktor Yushchenko was vexed when European Commission President Jose Barroso suggested that he and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko should make peace for the sake of Ukraine's stability. "I don't want to get advice on what to do anywhere in Europe, this is humiliating,"... MORE

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) says it places high priority on making Mexico an important link in its widely publicized “win-win” expansion into Latin America. This was evident during Vice President Xi Jinping’s February stop-over in Mexico City. In reality, however, after 37 years... MORE

As China expands its engagement throughout Africa, it increasingly finds itself involved in African conflict zones either by design or accident.  This involvement takes essentially three forms: Chinese participation in UN peacekeeping operations, Chinese weapons, especially small arms, which make their way into conflict zones,... MORE

On April 1 the first face-to-face meeting of presidents Barrack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev took place before the G20 summit in London. In an official joint statement after their meeting Obama and Medvedev announced their intention to "move beyond Cold War mentalities" and work together... MORE