Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with top Chinese officials on March 18 during a stop in Alaska, the State Department said on Wednesday, marking the first high-level in-person contact between the two countries under the Biden administration.

• March 10, 2021

The U.N. Security Council agreed on a statement on Wednesday that condemns violence against Myanmar protesters and urges military restraint, diplomats said, but dropped language condemning the army takeover as a coup and threatening possible further action due to opposition by China, Russia, India and Vietnam.

• March 10, 2021

By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies

Iranian hardliners are mostly rational political actors who are not ready to sacrifice Iran's security, and their own power, for the sake of ideological animosity towards the US or Israel. Therefore, even if a hardliner won next June’s presidential election in Iran compromise with the US on the nuclear file would be not only possible, but probable. This would be in the interest of both the US and Iran, as well as the entire Middle East region.
Relations with Iran are among the top priorities for the Biden administration. Since President Trump withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal and imposed new sanctions in May 2018, Washington and Tehran have been on a collision course. Iran's decision to start to break some of the deal’s requirements in May 2019, and the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani in January 2020, added fuel to bilateral animosity. READ MORE

• March 9, 2021

By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies

Relations with Russia were always a cornerstone for Armenian foreign policy. Since Armenia has regained its independence in 1991, Russia has been its essential political and military ally. Several reasons were behind such a choice – geopolitics, history, significant Armenian community in Russia. The Russian military base and border troops have been deployed in Armenia, and Yerevan joined Collective Security Treaty Organization and Eurasian Economic Union. Meanwhile, in the last 10-15 years, a discourse about Armenia’s dangerous overdependence on Russia was prevalent in Armenian and Western experts’ circles. Many perceived Armenia as a client state of Russia and called for changes. READ MORE

• March 3, 2021

By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies

US-Turkey relations have passed through significant transformations in the last decade. President Obama started by seeking to build a "model partnership" with Turkey during his first term in office, but later he confronted Turkey over the growing authoritarianism of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The US decision to choose the Syrian Kurds as the main ally in their fight against ISIS in Syria triggered significant resentment from Turkey. Ankara perceives the Kurdish YPG fighters as a Syrian branch of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which was identified as a terrorist organisation by both the US and Turkey. Ankara repeatedly warned the US "not to use terrorists to fight other terrorists". READ MORE

• February 25, 2021

Iran will “immediately reverse” actions in its nuclear programme once U.S. sanctions are lifted, its foreign minister said on Friday, reacting coolly to Washington’s initial offer to revive talks with Tehran aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal.

• February 19, 2021

President Joe Biden will seek on Friday to rally global democracies and European allies to work together to address a range of concerns about China, but is not looking for a “new Cold War,” a senior administration official said.

• February 19, 2021

The Kremlin said on Friday it hoped the United States and European Union would fall back on common sense and resist calls to impose new sanctions on Moscow over its treatment of opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

• February 19, 2021