Eurasia

Turkey has rejected accusations that it is helping Bulgarian politicians representing the country’s Turkish minority. The Turkish government has denied allegations that it interfered in neighboring Bulgaria’s election. The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Bulgaria’s ambassador to Turkey, Hristov Tcholakov, and told him that Turkey rejects all accusations that it interfered …

Hundreds of Chinese maritime militia vessels are operating in contested areas of the South China Sea on a consistent basis, according to a new U.S. think tank report that says this poses a significant challenge to “maritime order rooted in international law.” The Washington, D.C.,-based Center for Strategic and International …

The Biden administration was concerned and reportedly cautioned the Emirati leadership that a Chinese military presence in the country could jeopardise bilateral relations. The alleged construction was reportedly suspended after a series of talks and visits by US officials. US intelligence agencies found out this spring that China was secretly …

The global clout of OPEC, never one of the world’s most admired institutions, reached a nadir in April when a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia triggered a price war just as global oil demand was collapsing due to the coronavirus pandemic. Three months later, the cartel has re-emerged as …

The Kremlin has gone on a verbal offensive amid Western concerns over its military buildup near Ukraine, while stressing the importance of an unconfirmed Russian-U.S. presidential summit Moscow says is in the works. The Kremlin responded harshly on November 21 to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying a day …

Despite growing signs of a dramatic and global economic downturn stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, the small South American country of Guyana appears poised for a period of spectacular economic growth. In its recent semiannual report on Latin America and the Caribbean, the World Bank forecasts a 4.6 percent contraction …

Natural gas started flowing from Russia to China for the first time on Dec. 2 when Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, officially launched the initial phase of a huge new pipeline known as the Power of Siberia. Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned energy giant, claims it is expected …

In early November, Oman’s government announced plans to institute an income tax on high earners by 2022. The policy will break precedent in the oil-rich Gulf, where states tend to pay their citizens, rather than requiring citizens to pay the state. The question now is whether this decision will fundamentally …

In mid-August, Poland’s ruling right-wing Law and Justice party, or PiS, introduced a bill that would ban non-European ownership of Polish media properties. Detractors saw a blatant attack on TVN, the biggest independent television news source in the country and frequent PiS critic, which is owned by U.S. media conglomerate …

The collapse of the Afghan government over the weekend, culminating in the Taliban’s entry into Kabul and declaration of an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, stunned most observers with its rapidity, even if the outcome itself was not a surprise. Ever since it became clear that U.S. President Joe Biden would …