On June 11-12 2010 the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) held their annual Summit in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, under the auspices of the (rotational) Uzbek presidency. The previous SCO Summit was held in 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, where the agenda of the member states was dominated by the search for the right exit strategies out of the global economic-financial crisis, particularly those that would serve to minimise its nefarious consequences upon SCO members. In Tashkent, the agenda of SCO member country leaders was dominated by the following issues:

• Enhancement of regional stability and security
• Coordination of the intergovernmental struggle with international terrorism, extremism and separatism
• Contemporary problems relating to the above, including ongoing crisis in Afghanistan (a regional thorn for all of the SCO members) and the fallout of the political-security crisis in Kyrgyzstan
• Coordination of national and intergovernmental efforts to counter organised crime and narco-trafficking. READ MORE

• August 29, 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 28, 2010

China kept silent on Friday about a reported visit by North Korea's secretive leader, Kim Jong-il, that analysts say appears intended to line up Beijing behind his dynastic succession plans.

• August 28, 2010

Exclusive interview of Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) with Her Excellency Elena Poptodorova, Bulgaria’s new Ambassador to the United States of America.

• August 28, 2010

Hollywood executives and Washington policymakers are suckers for Russophobia. Considering the appalling level of political discourse in both these capitals of mass entertainment, certainly one cannot expect their "opinion leaders" to have read Professor Paul Kennedy's recent expose of European history packaged as a crash course to Americans about the inevitable downsizing of the US in the emerging, multipolar new world order.

• August 28, 2010

Two years ago, Abkhazia declared its independence from Georgia with Russian support. This summer, the breakaway republic announced its possession of Russian missiles in a bid to demonstrate its claimed sovereignty.

• August 26, 2010

Pakistan has proposed to Turkmenistan to supply gas via Iran by using the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline, instead of laying a pipeline through the war-torn Afghanistan, under swap arrangement, Business Recorder has learnt. Experts of the two countries will review the proposal in the 11th Steering Committee meeting on TAPI gas pipeline project scheduled for September 15-20 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

• August 26, 2010

The base price for Russian natural gas is still disadvantageous for Ukraine despite a new deal reached last April and the Kiev government will press Moscow to bring it down, Ukraine's prime minister said on Wednesday.

• August 25, 2010