Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambaev held a brief meeting before journalists at which Putin welcomed Atambaev's support for Kyrgyzstan's possible entry into the Belarus-Kazakhstan-Russia customs union.

• Date: 21.03.2012  |  Published on EGF: 20.03.2012  |  External Relations  |  from rferl.org

North Korea has invited the International Atomic Energy Agency to return, nearly three years after it kicked U.N. nuclear inspectors out of the country.

• Date: 20.03.2012  |  Published on EGF: 20.03.2012  |  Energy  |  from edition.cnn.com

Russia said it is prepared to support a U.N. Security Council resolution that would endorse a peace plan for Syria drafted by international envoy Kofi Annan.

• Date: 20.03.2012  |  Published on EGF: 20.03.2012  |  External Relations  |  from voanews.com

A meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Sarybai has been held in Moscow today, the ministry said.

• Date: 20.03.2012  |  Published on EGF: 20.03.2012  |  External Relations  |  from pda.trend.az

Teck Resources LimitedLimited ("Teck", TSX: TCK.A and TCK.B, NYSE: TCK) and the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center of the Ministry of Agriculture of China (NATESC) announced today that they have signed an agreement to demonstrate and promote zinc fertilizer use in China.

• Date: 19.03.2012  |  Published on EGF: 19.03.2012  |  External Relations  |  from reuters.com

The biggest and most promising European shale gas deposits are located in Poland. The EIA estimates that the Polish shale gas reserves cover more than 300 years of domestic consumption. The unconventional reserves exceed the conventional ones by the factor of 32. So far 109 licences have been granted to national and international groups in Poland. Poland imported more than 10bn cubic metres of natural gas from Russia in 2011. On top of it, coal is used for 90% of electric power generation. Therefore the political support for the development of domestic shale gas production is exemplary.

• Date: 19.03.2012  |  Published on EGF: 19.03.2012  |  Energy  |  from oilprice.com

Syria imported nearly six times more weapons in 2007-2011 than in the previous five-year period, with Russia accounting for 72 percent of the arms supplies to President Bashar Assad’s regime, an international research institute said Monday.

• Date: 19.03.2012  |  Published on EGF: 19.03.2012  |  External Relations  |  from dailycaller.com

Russian FM Sergey Lavrov will visit Azerbaijan in early April, Russian diplomatic source told Trend.

• Date: 17.03.2012  |  Published on EGF: 16.03.2012  |  External Relations  |  from pda.trend.az