RUSSIA President Dmitry Medvedev has had a regular meeting with the Russian Security Council’s permanent members, the Kremlin press service said on Friday. Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Head of the Kremlin Administration Sergei Naryshkin, Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, …

RUSSIA NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wishes to develop strategic partnership with Russia. It is necessary to develop strategic partnership with Moscow, Rasmussen said in an interview published by the Friday issue of the newspaper Le Monde. In his opinion, NATO and Russia face similar threats.

GEORGIA Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met visiting Foreign Minister of Georgia Grigol Vashadze. The two men discussed bilateral relations, specifically the tariffs for cargo transportation through Georgia and the upcoming meeting of the intergovernmental commission. Appreciating highly the centuries-old friendship between the nations, they also referred to the problems of …

GEORGIA Visiting Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze met Friday with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian. “Armenia welcomes contacts which underlie further development of mutually beneficial relations,” Minister Nalbandian said. The two men discussed Gyumri-Akhalthikhe-Bavra-Batumi highway construction, process of delimitation of the Armenian-Georgian border and energy cooperation. They also signed a …

GEORGIA Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will travel to Georgia on September 7-8 on an official trip, Anadolu news agency reported. In a press release issued on Friday, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said that Davutoglu would be in Georgia upon an invitation by his Georgian counterpart Grigol …

ROMANIA A senior figure in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party faced criticism Friday for comments at an election rally in which he appeared to disparage Romanian workers. An amateur video posted on YouTube and aired by several German media outlets showed Juergen Ruettgers, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, saying …

BULGARIA In an interview with The Capital Weekly Rumyana Zheleva, Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs explained that Bulgaria entered the EU with deficits in two fields – justice and home affairs. In due time problems occurred with the appropriation of EU funds. Somehow those problems intertwined leading to its bad …

BULGARIA Only 39% of the ISPA money has been absorbed over the last nine years and the 2010 deadline is just round the corner. This is what the Minister of Transport Alexander Tsvetkov announced. Minister Tsvetkov pointed out the percentage for OP Transport was 1.5%. In his words, Bulgaria needed …

BULGARIA There is a real risk that Bulgaria will fail to absorb the EU ISPA program funds, according to Transport Minister, Alexander Tsvetkov. Tsvetkov spoke Friday, during the regularly scheduled Parliamentary Control session, in response to question coming from his predecessor, Petar Mutafchiev.

MOLDOVA The new Government of the Republic of Moldova shall be formed all right by the end of September, Parliament Chairman Mihai Ghimpu stated in his interview with Jurnal de Chişinău newspaper that was published today. He explained, the majority parliamentary coalition has not yet discussed a concrete personal composition …