Eurasia

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to begin an official visit to Bulgaria Monday to hold talks with senior Bulgarian officials on issues of common interest. During his stay in Bulgaria, the Turkish PM will hold talks with his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov on ways of boosting bilateral relations …

Turkey feels it is becoming a victim of double standards in its EU accession bid, the country’s European Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis said on Wednesday (September 29th). “We don’t want any special treatment, but we don’t want additional burdens either,” he told a meeting titled “Turkey’s Membership Process after the …

Albania – The new OSCE head in Tirana, Eugen Wollfarth, has urged the government to start preparing for next spring’s local elections. “It is necessary to start early administrative preparations in line with OSCE recommendations,” Wollfarth said on Wednesday (September 29th) after meeting with Prime Minister Sali Berisha. Wollfarth promised …

Serbian President Boris Tadic will attend Sunday’s (October 3rd) enthronement ceremony of Serbian Patriarch Irinej at the Patriarchy in Pec, the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Synod announced on Wednesday. The SPC warned against provocations or politicising the religious event. Bishop Irinej, of Nis, was elected as SPC head on January …

Acting Kosovo president Jakup Krasnici says that elections for the assembly in Priština could be held in six months’ time. Fatmir Sejdiu resigned from that position last week. “Until institutions in Kosovo have been formed, negotiations with Serbia should not be entered into,” he said. Krasnici also said he believed …

European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Štefan Füle and Prime Minister Vlad Filat have today signed a Protocol to the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Communities and their member states and the Republic of Moldova.

Invigoration of the efforts being undertaken by international partners presently, their initiatives and statements made at the top level are indicating that there exists a possibility to approve the European Union and the United States as international mediators to the Transnistrian settlement negotiations, along with Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE …

U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met in Washington on Wednesday. It was announced that they discussed “ways of assisting in the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo”. At a news conference after the meeting, which was used to discuss the Middle East peace process …

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will visit Georgia Friday to meet with President Mikheil Saakashvili and other Georgian officials. During the visit, Rasmussen will open the NATO Liaison Office in Tbilisi, said a brief NATO statement here today. In 1994, Georgia joined the Alliance’s Partnership for Peace and recently …

The NATO Military Committee is praising the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) but notes that it is still early for local forces to take over the protection of Kosovo’s borders. Military Committee Chairman Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola said that the KSF is “doing an excellent job and we are satisfied with …