India and Pakistan have gained accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) a regional security agreement that originally started between Russia and China. The SCO conference took place after the BRICs meeting in Ufa. The SCO includes Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and has been actively courting expansion for a long…
On his way to the BRICS conference in Moscow, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a pit stop in Astana, signing 5 agreements with President Nursultan Nazarbayev ranging from defense and terrorism to arranging for the transfer of uranium reserves from Kazakhstan to India. This is the first complete tour of the five post-Soviet “republics”…
As the P5+1 powers and Iran edge closer and closer to a nuclear accord, global oil markets have begun speculating as to how the flow of hydrocarbons will be affected and when sanctions will be released on Iran, which holds the world’s second largest reserves of oil and is additionally among the top 10 richest…
The New York Times writes that Ukraine is moving quickly to avoid a repeat of the ongoing Greece crisis and restructure its debt. The article contends that the Ukrainian government, along with the IMF, is attempting to strong-arm creditors into accepting “big losses” in the process of negotiating a bailout deal. The government currently stands…
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko unveiled several changes to the Constitution to Parliament on July 1, and has since been barraged by criticism and outright rejection from belligerent separatists still occupying vast swathes of the eastern part of the country. The changes largely amount to a decrease in overall presidential authority, granting local towns the significant…
The US State Department and the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced that negotiations related to its nuclear program will be extended until July 7. Reports related to the talks indicate that progress has been made and that the sides are “nearing” a deal. This in mind, there appears to be some ambiguity regarding the parameters of…
Another extension on negotiations looks like the most likely outcome for continued nuclear talks between the P5+1 Powers (Germany, Russia, China, the US, France, and Britain) and Iran. With the deadline approaching tonight at 12 am – Iran’s top negotiator Abbas Araqchi reported back to Tehran on Sunday to discuss new terms with Supreme Leader…
The Islamic State’s activities in Afghanistan have been limited, according to a new report issued by the Pentagon. The activities of the extremist organization have, according to the report, been thus far focused on exploration and have not included widespread recruiting or military campaigns. Furthermore, the province in which the report alleges ISIL to be…
The Central Bank of Kazakhstan’s governor, Kairat Kelimbetov, tantalizingly announced once again that it intends to move away from its currency peg to the dollar and move towards what it called an “inflation targeting” method, implying a switch to a floating exchange rate regime. Bloomberg conducted an extensive interview with Kelimbetov where he explicitly stated…
Representatives from several Western oil majors including Royal Dutch Shell and Eni recently held meetings with Iranian officials in Tehran. The meetings are the first of their kind following the tentative Iranian nuclear framework deal, and demonstrate the existing level of interest in the Iranian nuclear program. According to Shell representatives, the recent meetings revolved…
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