A week after announcing a uranium-swap agreement with Turkey and Brazil, Iran on Monday formally submitted the proposal to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna — and in doing so, as Tehran sees it, put the proverbial ball back in the court of the U.S. and its allies.

• May 27, 2010

Russia has discovered a new ideology in its foreign policy: money.

• May 27, 2010

Russia will resume talks to join the World Trade Organisation next month, a year after suspending them to create a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan.

• May 27, 2010

The US secretary of state visits South Korea as the North cuts ties after being blamed for sinking a warship.

• May 26, 2010

Energy and security: Russia’s new obsession with the wider Black Sea region Revived by the economic recovery it has witnessed in recent years, and not necessarily weakened by the global financial crisis, Russia is demonstrating itself to be an increasingly assertive (political and economic) force in the wider-Black and Caspian Seas (BCS) basin. Exerting influence in the BCS region is a crucial element in the Russian geopolitical strategy, given the region’s importance both as an energy producer as well as its vitality as a primary corridor for the transit of oil and gas to international markets.

• May 26, 2010

Russia wants Poland to participate in the construction of the Baltic nuclear power station in the Kaliningrad Oblast corridor.

• May 25, 2010

During Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Ankara this month, Turkey and Russia enhanced their multi-dimensional partnership by signing 17 agreements.

• May 25, 2010

Chinese President Hu Jintao has promised to reform his country's currency-exchange-rate system but rejected US demands to appreciate the yuan faster. US Secretary of State Clinton is leading the 200-strong US delegation.

• May 25, 2010