Ukraine is interested in Azerbaijan's participation in the Viking rail transit route, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said while meeting with Azerbaijan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mammadyarov

• February 24, 2011

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was due in South Korea Wednesday for talks expected to cover North Korea's newly disclosed uranium enrichment programme and other issues, officials said.

• February 23, 2011

Saudi Arabia and France yesterday signed a bilateral cooperation agreement on developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

• February 23, 2011

European plans to liberalise energy markets have undermined Russian investments, including the second phase of the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Germany, Russian Gas Society President Valery Yazev said on Monday.

• February 22, 2011

Alexei Miller will have to perform a careful balancing act when he goes into European energy policy negotiations later this week.

• February 22, 2011

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who will be in Brussels on 24 February, will seek long-term special arrangements for his country's gas supplies to the EU, various speakers said yesterday (21 February). Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's envoy to the EU, warned that the talks could be "unpleasant".

• February 22, 2011

A visit to China by Kazakhstan's long-standing leader is further reinforcing the growing Chinese role in the resource-rich Central Asian nation, with deals to be signed Tuesday on uranium supplies and financing for oil projects.

• February 22, 2011

February 2011

Key positions:

• Former Turkish Prime Minister, Necmettin Erbakan, passed away Sunday 27 February. He was 84. Erbakan, the first Islamist prime minister of the Turkish Republic, was forced to resign after only a year into his reign by the military, in what is called the first ‘post-modern coup’.

• Under the guidance of current Prime Minister Erdogan, Turkey has stayed on the sidelines throughout much of the past weeks while protests raged throughout the Middle East. Ankara is finding its new position as a dominant regional actor as having less impact than previously thought, but has been forced to act pragmatically due to the proximity of its own citizens and financial interests in the affected nations.

• Prime Minister Erdogan recently spoke in Dusseldorf, Germany, telling Turks there that while they should learn the (German) language and participate in wider culture of their new homeland; assimilation would be an affront to their human rights. The prime minister also spoke positively about Turkey’s accession to the EU, surprising some for the positive manner in which the AKP leader addressed the issue after years of European rejection.

• The Nabucco gas pipeline still appears to be up in the air as none of the participating companies have yet signed any construction agreements, while a Russian delegation has put pressure on the Brussels-EU whilst addressing its own energy security concerns. READ MORE

• February 22, 2011