3 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Kyodo News

The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday it has reached an agreement in principle with Georgia to provide a $750 million loan package to the country to help it rebuild its economy hurt by recent clashes with Russia.

The IMF Executive Board is expected to approve the loan package, which will be provided in the form of an 18-month stand-by arrangement, at its meeting in mid-September. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Development, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe

23 August 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: John Palmer
• Source: Irish Times

A WEEK after the tentative ceasefire in Georgia and a full Russian troop withdrawal is far from assured. But even if the conflict over South Ossetia and Abkhazia is defused, the wider strategic, security and political relationships between the United States, the European Union and Russia have been thrown into a crisis unparalleled since the end of the Cold War.

In a disturbing echo of the way seemingly marginal conflicts in the pre-1914 world brought the then Great Powers into confrontation, any of half a dozen flashpoints could yet ignite further dangerous east/west tensions. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under East-West Relations and Russia, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe

15 August 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Andrew Ward
• Source: Financial Times

Condoleezza Rice had to use an unfamiliar aircraft when she flew to Europe for emergency talks on the conflict in Georgia this week.

The Boeing 757 usually made available to the secretary of state was being used by Dick Cheney, vice-president, for a political fundraising trip to Colorado, forcing Ms Rice to take a smaller C-40. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under East-West Relations and Russia, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe, Regional Security

7 July 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: PNA (Philippines News Agency)

TOYAKO (Japan), July 6 (PNA/Itar-Tass) — The Kremlin hopes to avoid a pause in the development of Russian-US relations that may be caused by the forthcoming US presidential elections at the yearend, Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said in comments on an upcoming meeting of the presidents of the countries at a G8 summit in Japan on July 7. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under Other, Energy and Nuclear Safety, East-West Relations and Russia, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe

6 July 2008
For Personal Use Only

President Lee Myung-bak will leave for Japan Tuesday to attend the G8 summit of major industrialized countries, the presidential office said Sunday. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Climate Change, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe

20 March 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: JAMES BLITZ
• Source: Financial Times

Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister, is set to hold his first one-to-one meeting with Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian president-elect, later this year in a sign that both London and Moscow are working to put their bilateral relationship on a new and improved footing.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under East-West Relations and Russia, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe, Regional Security

19 March 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

How Russia should react to Iran’s activity in the nuclear sphere.

Teheran is refusing to conduct negotiations with the “group of six” countries who are international mediators (permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) on the Iranian nuclear problem. This was announced by the official representative of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Golamhossein Elham. The reason for such a defiantly harsh decision was the adoption of another UN Security Council resolution at the beginning of March, presupposing new sanctions against Iran. “Negotiations on the nuclear problem with the ‘group of six’ or some other individual country will no longer be held,” emphasized Golamhossein Elham.
(more…)

Filed by Nicole Cargill under Energy and Nuclear Safety, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe, Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD

14 November 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: WPS Defense and Security

WPS Defense and Security-Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with the Federation Council to explain the current “moment of truth” in international relations and what he believed it might result in. (more…)

Filed by Kyle D'Souza under East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe

9 October 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Trend News Agency (Azerbaijan)

U.S. defence and foreign ministers are due in Moscow at the end of this week for talks on Washington’s missile shield plans in Europe. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says his expectations are high before the crucial meeting. (more…)

Filed by Egor Ouzikov under East-West Relations and Russia, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe, Regional Security

12 September 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: The Commission of the European Communities - Press Releases

Benita Ferrero-Waldner European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Slovenia’s upcoming presidency

Ambassadors’ Conference of the Republic of Slovenia Brussels, September 11, 2007

Dear Minister Rupel,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to be here. Not just as a neighbour and long-time friend of your country. But also as the Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy who will work very closely with Slovenia in the months ahead.

Slovenia’s Presidency will indeed be special. Slovenia will be the first “new Member State” to assume this office, and it will do so at critical juncture of EU integration.

A Presidency is a logistical challenge . I headed the Task Force running Austria‚Äôs EU Presidency in 1998 - at the time also the first “new member” to take over. So I know what I am talking about! (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Investment and Competition Policy, Development, Energy and Nuclear Safety, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe

11 September 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Lloyd's List

UNITED STATES — President George W Bush will mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will address family members of those who died in the attack on the Pentagon, Washington DC.

ETHIOPIA — Ethiopians will celebrate the start of a new millennium. The country has retained its own Orthodox calendar, which is eight years behind that of the West.

VIENNA ‚Äî145th OPEC Ordinary Meeting. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Other, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe

23 August 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Voice of America

The State Department Thursday rejected comments by Austria’s defense minister that the U.S. missile defense system planned for central Europe is unnecessary and amounts to a Cold War-style provocation. U.S. officials say the system, to be based in Poland and the Czech Republic, is intended to counter a potential missile threat from Iran. VOA’s David Gollust reports from the State Department.

The State Department is vigorously defending the anti-missile plan in the face of comments by Austrian Defense Minister Norbert Darabos that the program makes no sense, and will only re-ignite Cold War debates in Europe. (more…)

Filed by Egor Ouzikov under East-West Relations and Russia, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe, Regional Security

7 August 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: El Pais - English Edition

THE INTEGRATION of the former communist countries of central and eastern Europe into the European Union is turning out to be more troubled than that of the states that joined the initial nucleus in previous decades. A mute resentment crops up here and there over reasons such as relations with Russia - which they consider relatively undemanding when it comes to the issues of energy or human rights - the freedom of movement of workers in western Europe, and environmental policies. This last question has caused six of these countries - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia and Estonia - to bring the European Commission before the Court of Justice in Luxembourg, since they consider the allocation of carbon dioxide emission rights that Brussels has set for them for the next five years unjust. (more…)

Filed by Maria Robson under Development, Climate Change, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe