President of the European Council Charles Michel, following the trilateral meeting with Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on 31 August 2022, issued a statement. As agreed during our last meeting in May, I hosted President Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Pashinyan of Armenia today. This was our…
Vedant Patel, Deputy Spokesman of the US State Department, spoke about Armenia-Azerbaijan relations at the meeting with journalists, as well as the negotiations between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan scheduled for today in Brussels. He once again confirmed that the United States is committed to promoting a secure, stable, democratic, prosperous, and peaceful future…
On August 30, the second session of the Commission on delimitation and Border Security of the State Border between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State Commission on the delimitation of the State Border between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan was held in Moscow, chaired by…
The Georgian government is preparing to join Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), allowing customers make cashless euro payments – via credit transfer and direct debit – to anywhere in the European Union, as well as a number of non-EU countries, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced on Monday, 1tv.ge reports. Today, three draft laws will…
Reuters. Iraqi militants fired several rockets at Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone on Tuesday (August 30) as sporadic clashes continued for a second day between rival Shi’ite Muslim groups, Iraq’s military said. Streets were mostly empty of ordinary people as gunmen cruised in pickup trucks carrying machine guns and brandishing grenade launchers. Overnight, sustained gun…
OSCE FRANCE REPRESENTATION CONGRATULATED REEKER France congratulated Philip Reeker on his appointment as the new United States Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group. “Congratulations to Philip Reeker on his appointment as Senior Adviser for Caucasus Negotiations and as Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group for the United States,” the French Mission to the OSCE said…
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said that the agency’s mission to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is ready and will arrive there this week, TASS reports. “The day has come, @IAEAorg’s Support and Assistance Mission to #Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ) is now on its way. We must protect the safety and…
The French permanent representation to OSCE responded to Baku’s anti-OSCE Minsk Group statements issued by Leyla Abdullayeva, a spokeswoman of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry. “Attempts to “reanimate” the virtually inactive Minsk Group may lead to the distancing US from the process of normalizing Azerbaijani-Armenian relations”, Abdullayeva stated. “Did you know that France, along with USA…
Ukraine has exported more than 840,000 tonnes of agricultural products since the launch of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, said the Joint Coordination Center of the initiative on Friday. The Black Sea Grain Initiative was launched in Istanbul by the Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and United Nations on July 22, 2022. Defense Minister of…
Reuters. Russia is wasting large volumes of natural gas by burning it in a huge orange flare near the Finnish border at a time when it has sharply cut deliveries to the European Union, scientists and analysts said on Friday (August 26). Analysts from Rystad, an energy consultancy based in Norway, described it as…
Reuters. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday (August 26) that his military’s warplanes had been modified to carry nuclear weapons and that Minsk would react immediately if the West caused it any problems. Lukashenko said he had agreed the move to modernise Belarusian warplanes with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Belta news agency…
Ukraine has exported 3.41 million tonnes of grain, including 2.18 million tonnes of corn (64% of all grain exports), 937,000 tonnes of wheat (27.5%), and 274,000 tonnes of barley (8%), since the beginning of the 2022-2023 marketing year (July 2022-June 2023). The pace of grain exports since the start of the current marketing year…
Reuters. Iran’s military continued into a second day of drone exercises on Thursday (August 25), state media reported. Footage showed various types of drones being launched and dropping munitions on desert targets. The two-day drills were reported by state TV to involve 150 drones and cover Iran’s Gulf coast and most of its…
Reuters. Sports presenter Sinem Okten was surprised to see her visa application to Europe’s Schengen area rejected twice, having visited often to cover matches and interview figures like Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon and Liverpool’s Juergen Klopp. “I applied first to Germany then to France. Both rejected my application,” she said. “I’ve travelled abroad numerous…
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reacted aggressively on the appointment of Philip Reeker as US OSCE Minsk Group. US State Secretary Antony J. Blinken announced about his new position on August 24. “The statement by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on the appointment of Philip Reeker as the chief negotiating adviser in the Caucasus is…
Congressman Josh Gottheimer referred to the recent attacks on Artsakh by Azerbaijan. “I condemn the recent attacks by Azerbaijan in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) — injuring and killing people in the region. The U.S. must do more to hold Azerbaijan accountable” Congressman Tweeted.
Reuters. Thunderstorms and heavy rain led to flooding in parts of northern Greece on Wednesday (August 24). Holidaymakers in Toroni, a popular holiday spot on the Chalkidiki peninsula, were forced indoors by the heavy downpour. Streets in the town were flooded and a stream washed out parts of a local beach. Across the…
Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a phone conversation with the Foreign Minister of France Catherine Colonna, Armenia’s MFA Press Office informs. Minister Mirzoyan expressed his condolences to the French side on the human casualties caused by the storm in Corsica on August 18. Minister Colonna, on her part, expressed condolences to the…
Russian National Guard detained two Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant employees who handed over information on location of personnel and vehicles at the power plant to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, National Guard press office told TASS. “Russian National Guard servicemen thwarted illegal actions that threatened security of the Zaporozhye Nuclear power Plant – special addressed…
State Development Corporation VEB.RF made the transition to rubles and does not make transactions in dollars and euro anymore, its CEO Igor Shuvalov said at the meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, Kremlin website reports. “We shifted to ruble transactions exclusively. We also use other currencies of friendly states but we do not…
The meeting of the commissions for demarcation and border security between Armenia and Azerbaijan is planned to take place by the end of August in Moscow, Russia, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan’s office said. No separate agenda of items is decided yet.
Reuters. Iran accused the United States on Monday (August 22) of procrastinating in efforts to revive Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal – a charge denied by Washington, which said a deal was closer than two weeks ago because of apparent Iranian flexibility. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said talks regarding the deal had ‘languished,’…
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday (August 22) that a response from Iran to the EU’s latest proposal on a nuclear deal with the U.S. was “reasonable”. “There was a proposal from me as coordinator of the negotiations… and a response from Iran that I considered reasonable. It was transmitted…
The weather conditions complicate the fire extinguishing process in Borjomi Municipality, said Davit Sukhishvili, head of the Fire and Rescue Forces Department of the Emergency Situations Management Service, on Sunday Georgian Public Broadcaster reports. Three border police helicopters have been mobilized on the spot, awaiting the strong wind to subside. Up to 250…
A passenger bus has hit an ambulance, a fire truck and an outside broadcast vehicle in southeast Turkey on Aug. 20, killing at least 16 passengers, including journalists, Turkish media report. The accident occurred on the Gaziantep (Ayntap)- Nizip Highway. 21 passengers were also wounded, Gaziantep Governor Davut Gül has said. Among the…
Reuters. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday (August 20) the United Nations is working with the United States and European Union to overcome obstacles to Russian food and fertilisers reaching world markets. Guterres said that under a U.N.-brokered deal agreed in Turkey last month to resume Ukraine’s grain exports cut off since Russia’s…
Iran has officially dropped a key “red line” demand that had been a major sticking point in efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, a senior administration official told CNN. In its Monday response to a draft nuclear deal agreement proposed by the European Union — which the EU has described as a “final”…
Toivo Klaar, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia informs that Armenian and Azerbaijani top officials had a meeting in Brussels. Armen Grigoryan, Secretary of Security Council of Armenia and Hikmet Hajiyev, Advisor to the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, had a meeting joined by EU representatives. “Good and…
Reuters. Turkey and Ukraine signed a deal on Thursday (August 18) to reconstruct infrastructure damaged in Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported as their leaders Tayyip Erdogan and Volodymyr Zelenskiy met in Lviv. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who arrived in Ukraine on Wednesday (August 17), met with Zelenskiy and…
Reuters. Four times the tonnage of the original Open Arms rescue tugboat and with a capacity to carry up to 1,000 people, the shapely Open Arms Uno made its first rescue on Wednesday (August 17) picking up 101 migrants stranded on a wooden boat off the Tunisian coast. “Sit down, if you don’t sit…
