May 2014

Beijing will join hands with Paris to explore third-party nuclear energy markets, Premier Li Keqiang told the French foreign minister on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged European Union leaders on Thursday to do more to help Ukraine through its economic crisis and said Moscow was ready for consultations with Europe over  Kiev's gas debts. 

Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are intensifying military-technical cooperation. We are interested in developing contacts both on bilateral and multilateral levels as part of the Turkic-speaking countries, in the framework of the Customs Union and other organizations, this has been said in Baku by the military attache of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Azerbaijan Almaz Bazarbayev.

“Ukraine could sign an agreement on visa-free travel regime with the EU by mid-2015,” said Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski on Friday, after meeting with senior officials of the Ukrainian MFA in Kyiv.

Visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns met with Kazakhstan’s top leadership on May 8 in Astana to discuss a range of bilateral and regional cooperation issues, including events in Ukraine and the situation in Afghanistan as well as Kazakhstan’s upcoming accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The key message coming out from Burns’s meetings with President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Prime Minister Karim Massimov and Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov was that both Washington and Astana are strongly interested in further expanding their strategic partnership in the long term.

NATO launched a large-scale exercise “Steadfast Javelin 1” in Estonia on Friday (16 May 2014) which will test Allied forces on their ability to work together as well as maintaining NATO’s readiness and combat effectiveness.

The Arctic is the most graphic example of climate change impacting geopolitics. A whole vast region, previously permanently icebound, is opening up for commercial navigation and energy exploration. The international community stands before a range of new opportunities, but it is also faced with a series of issues waiting to be resolved. The question now is whether these challenges will promote global cooperation or foster dangerous competition in the Arctic.

Azerbaijani and Kazakh petroleum geologists have agreed to cooperate, according to a message from Azerbaijani State Oil Company (SOCAR).

Poland could join the euro zone faster if the requirement for the zloty to be in the ERM-2 exchange rate mechanism were waived, an adviser to Prime Minister Donald Tusk was quoted as saying on Tuesday (13 May).

First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev said China would support Kazakhstan in preparation and holding of the EXPO-2017. It is worth noting that alternative energy sources will be the main theme of the upcoming event.

Greece will grant three concessions to explore and exploit oil and gas deposits next week.

NATO will strengthen partnership with Ukraine and leaves the door for Ukraine's possible accession to the Alliance open, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in his speech at the 2014 GLOBSEC Security Forum in Bratislava on Thursday.

Poland and Lithuania are working with Ukraine to establish stronger trilateral military ties after the recent political transition in Kiev. Knowing that NATO membership for Ukraine is unlikely because of resistance from other European countries and Russia, Warsaw and Vilnius — two of Europe’s strongest advocates for closer relations with Kiev — hope to use the trilateral partnership to strengthen the Ukrainian military’s Western orientation and build a closer alliance with Kiev, STRATFOR reported.

The head of NATO on Friday urged Russia to “step back from the brink” and described President Vladimir Putin’s visit to recently annexed Crimea as inappropriate.

On 1 May 2004, ten countries joined the EU: Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta. On the 10th anniversary of the most extensive European enlargement ever, the EurActiv network reflects on its achievements, and challenges.