By Vijay Prashad On September 22, a seemingly nondescript meeting was held in Tehran, Iran: The Road Maintenance and Transportation Organisation (RMTO) held its first expert meeting for the Iran-India-Afghanistan Agreement on Transit and International Transportation Cooperation. Bureaucratic acronyms and legalistic language abounds. None of this seems – on the surface – to be greatly important. But this … Continue reading
Azerbaijan maintains friendly and partner relations with Turkey, Georgia, Russia and Iran. It has problems only with Armenia, which occupied 20% of Azerbaijani lands and holds them under occupation for over 20 years. In 1988, the Armenians of Karabakh voted to secede and join Armenia. This, along with mutual massacres in Azerbaijan and Armenia resulted … Continue reading
Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved one step closer to creating an integrated currency market in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed after the breakup of the Soviet Union. On Friday, Putin submitted a draft law, named “On Ratification of the Agreement on Cooperation in Organizing … Continue reading
By Pepe Escobar, Asia Times A high-level European diplomatic source has confirmed to Asia Times that German chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has vigorously approached Beijing in an effort to disrupt its multi-front strategic partnership with Russia. Beijing won’t necessarily listen to this political gesture from Berlin, as China is tuning the strings on its pan-Eurasian New … Continue reading
Emerging Asia will maintain its strong economic growth in 2015 and 2016, supported by soft commodity prices and recovery in the major industrial economies, a new report from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says. The ADB’s annual economic report, Asian Development Outlook 2015 (ADO), released on Tuesday, forecasts gross domestic product (GDP) growth in emerging … Continue reading
By Chris Weafer, Macro Advisory Russia is not the only economy suffering from the combination of the oil price collapse and sanctions; most of the countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are also feeling the pain. For some it is because they have also waited far too long to start diversifying away from … Continue reading
By Pepe Escobar, Sputnik News The Empire of Chaos dream of regime change in Russia has always hinged on controlling large swathes of Eurasia. With “friends” like European Council President Donald Tusk and top NATO commander Gen. Philip Breedlove, the EU certainly doesn’t need enemies. Gen. Breedhate has been spewing out his best Dr. Strangelove impersonation, warning that … Continue reading
By Alina Yablokova and Global Risk Insights On February 25, the European Commission presented its Energy Union package of proposals, a first major step made by the European legislators to realise the strategy of coordinating the energy policies of the 28 EU member states. Indeed, the European Commission envisages a union that speaks with one voice … Continue reading
With Moscow declaring in the coming years that it will divert its gas supplies away from Ukraine and through Turkey to supply Europe, Ankara said it is a step closer to its goal of being a major gas hub. But critics point out Turkey still has many hurdles to overcome. By Dorian Jones The deepening crisis … Continue reading
Azerbaijan’s railroad supporters say their country is the crucial link between east and west, the missing tie that speeds goods from the east to the markets of the west. A fast, efficient railroad system is, some experts say, both the key to regional integration and an enormous economic engine—a system that, in the first five … Continue reading