Lithuanian energy minister said that diversification of the gas market in Lithuania will eliminate the need for ties to the Russian energy sector by 2020, news agency UPI reports.

• August 30, 2010

Russia, Greece, Iran and Iraq will officially not be posing any threat to Turkey soon. Turkish media said that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan intends to considerably revise the national security strategy in October 2010. The head of the Turkish government will reportedly exclude the above-mentioned countries from the list of external threats.

• August 30, 2010

Diversification of the gas market in Lithuania will eliminate the need for ties to the Russian energy sector by 2020, the Lithuanian energy minister said.

• August 30, 2010

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych faced a tough grilling over press freedom in an interview with the German media before a visit to Berlin on Monday. The president had hoped to focus on economic issues.

• August 30, 2010

Israeli and Palestinian leaders were looking forward to direct talks this week in Washington with both hope and apprehension. The two sides have agreed to hold direct peace talks beginning Thursday, the first such talks since 2008.

• August 30, 2010

When Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada was in Delhi a few days back for the fourth round of strategic dialogue between Japan and India, he made it clear that negotiations on a civilian nuclear cooperation pact are going to be rather difficult.

• August 30, 2010

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Sunday opened the Russian section of a long-awaited oil pipeline that will carry Russian crude to China in a bid to diversify its oil exports away from Europe.

• August 29, 2010

Over the last decade, two energy rings have been forming in the Balkan/Caspian oil and gas pipeline/energy supply route context, first in Turkey and then in Greece. As a result, both countries have been elevated to the role of strategic energy corridor territories, linking the energy-rich Caspian region with Europe. Both Turkey and Greece exhibit vast potential in connecting Caspian supply sources with Western markets, both independently of one another as well as in unison. Taking this into account, the EU and the US in particular have endorsed policies which have privileged Turkey as the main interconnector between Europe and the Caspian in the scramble for European energy security. However, Ankara’s current geopolitical reorientation towards Russia (with whom it has developed a pragmatic, yet strong energy partnership) and the Middle East, along with the several security-political shortcomings that undermine the stability of the Turkish energy grid, might lead toward a rethinking of Western energy policy toward the alternative, emergent Greek (energy) ring. READ MORE

• August 29, 2010