U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Ankara on Saturday, the highest-level direct contact between the administration of President Barack Obama and the Turkish government so far, highlighted the value each side places on sustaining the Turkish-American partnership. In addition to her meetings with... MORE

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The ICC accused al-Bashir of being directly responsible for the attacks by pro-government militia in Sudan's Darfur province. Turkey hosted al-Bashir twice last year and his deputy Ali... MORE

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Ankara on March 7, the last day of her diplomatic tour of the Middle East. Ankara has prepared a number of issues to discuss during the visit—most importantly, Afghanistan, the American withdrawal from Iraq and the role... MORE

On February 24 and 25 Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov paid a state visit to Uzbekistan for talks with President Islom Karimov. The discussions, which covered a wide range of issues, signaled a further strengthening of bilateral ties; but this was overshadowed by the confirmation by... MORE

President Barak Obama's administration has been preparing a set of wide-ranging initiatives to "reset" U.S.-Russian relations. Nuclear arms control talks are planned to resume; NATO officials have told reporters that meetings of the NATO-Russia Council, which stopped last August after the Russian invasion of Georgia,... MORE

The geopolitics of China’s rise and its implications for the Arab world and wider Middle East is a topic for serious debate.  Currently, China’s Middle East strategy revolves around shoring up its energy security and tapping consumer markets and investment opportunities for Chinese businesses.  Given... MORE

The eastward expansion of membership and enlargement of missions undertaken by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) over the past decade push a lot of sensitive buttons in China’s national security policy. These sensitivities include long-standing opposition to the enlargement of military blocs and strengthening... MORE

While the international community has been discussing whether Iran finally has the technological capacity to produce nuclear weapons, the diplomatic traffic between Turkey and Iran has been increasing. In addition to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Turkey, nine meetings at the ministerial level were... MORE

On February 19, in the latest stage of the increasing rapprochement between the EU and Belarus, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana visited Minsk and met with Belarus President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The meeting was perceived by several sources as a... MORE

On February 25 and 26 George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, visited the Turkish capital of Ankara on his second tour of the region to discuss the future of peace initiatives in the area. Mitchell's visit is to be followed... MORE