With the EU growing at the speed of global population while resources melt away, the Union’s interest is increasingly defined on a global scale. Will its Diplomatic Service be able to safeguard these interests? And what future for Europe’s relations across the Atlantic and to the emerging great powers in Asia?

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“Hanligil believes that a city can change with sports and started his journey in Hakkari, where there are almost no social and sport activities for youth.” I agree with him. Sports is a powerful tool indeed. The turkish government supports sports activities in order to help the young people to integrate better into society, but [...]

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent moves to weaken institutionally the two principal centers of resistance to the conservative-populist rule of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have met with little resistance from the country’s stock markets, buoyed by positive trade figures and upgrades in Turkey’s sovereign debt ratings.

I’ve just come across a speech by Yu Jianrong on 26 December 2009.  Professor Yu is director of social issues research at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and advises top leaders – clearly an insider.  What he said is disturbing – and surprising.  It is rare for someone of Yu’s official standing directly to [...]

Sir,
10 March has a double significance in the history of Tibet. On that day in 1959 the Dalai Lama fled the Chinese occupation.
On March 10 2008 Tibetan monks took to the streets of Lhasa protesting Chinese oppressive policies. The Chinese authorities brutally suppressed the uprising. Until today, there has been no independent investigation of those [...]

Sir,
Regarding ‘EU-Macedonia relations‘:
First off, the reason FYROM was blocked from NATO was because the country applied for membership as ‘Macedonia’ and NOT as FYROM. Applying as ‘Macedonia’ and not as ‘FYROM’ is what violated the 1995 agreement, which the media is largely ignoring.
Secondly, in response to the former Green MEP Angelika Beer’s comment about “the [...]

The historical struggle in Washington about Health Care Reform went mostly under the horizon of the European mainstream press, lastly.  One understands why. The procedure got stuck, last autumn, in the dark alleyways of US decision-making on the f…

The following interview appeared in Global Times on 15 March 2010:
Editor’s Note:
China constantly complains of being misperceived by the West, but how much of that is China’s own fault? Do Europeans still see China through an ideological lens, or does China fail to present itself in a way acceptable in the modern world? Global Times (GT) [...]

Yesterday’s post reported on the non-attendance of Premier Wen Jiabao at the small leaders’ meeting on 17 December.  Wen’s explanation of what happened was the same as previously reported in the Chinese media, except that the latter said that the meeting was held by the US.  Wen did not repeat this.  It’s hard to understand [...]

Writing in BusinessWeek on 12 March, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said global economic growth would be about 1.5% higher if China stopped restraining the value of its currency and running trade surpluses.   “We should not be afraid of what the Chinese might do if we pressure them to stop this currency manipulation,” Krugman said.
Krugman [...]

This morning in Beijing, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao explained at his press conference what actually happened in Copenhagen on 17 December 2009 on the eve of the UN Climate Change Conference, which gave rise to criticism of Chinese behaviour and even allegations of arrogance.  It is remarkable that this is the first official version of [...]

My blog post of 12 March reported Premier Wen Jiabao, in his annual address to the National People’s Congress, stating that corruption threatened the rule of the CCP.  China’s former state auditor, Li Jinhua has, in the official ‘People’s Daily’ on-line, identified the business dealings of Party officials as the main source of public dissatisfaction.  [...]

The US Treasury, in its semi-annual report delivered every April and October, can formally label China as a “currency manipulator” on account of the yuan’s substantial undervalue.  This would allow the Department of Commerce to impose countervailing duties on a wide range of Chinese products.
US Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee at [...]

Corruption has always been addressed by Premier Wen Jiabao in his annual address to the National People’s Congress, but this year he went much further than before by stating that corruption threatened the rule of the CCP. 
In his speech on 5 March 2010, the Premier affirmed  that the battle against graft would be a critical [...]

The decision of Northrop Grumman and EADS not to bid on the tender to supply the US Air Force with $50 billion worth of air refuelling tankers is very disturbing.  They won the contract in 2008 but, after Boeing’s protest, a new tender was issued, with the technical terms sufficiently changed so that the larger [...]

This year’s Halki International Seminars focused on the role of the transatlantic institutions in helping local stakeholders address security challenges in the Middle East, the Black Sea and Southeastern Europe. In the interview that follows, Prof. Sh. Feldman discusses his views on the Middle East issue.
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This story about the new EU diplomatic service was published by EurActiv on 5th March 2010.
The birth of the European External Action Service, one of the most anticipated innovations of the Lisbon Treaty, will be a difficult one, admitted a top European Commission official yesterday (4 March).
João Vale de Almeida, director-general at the European Commission’s [...]

Turkey is sailing to the European Union slowly, but it is sailing. That is very important. The Finnish Mr Olli Rehn (a friend of the turkish president Mr Abdullah Gül) does know that many politicians in the EU are subjective regarding the negotiations between Turkey and the EU. But he repeated a few times that [...]

The Department of Energy has closed its $465 million loan with Tesla Motors, Inc. for construction of a manufacturing facility in southern California on the Model S electric sedan and a power-train manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California.  The Palo Alto facility will assemble electric vehicle battery packs, electric motors, and related electric vehicle control [...]

Latin American countries have made great strides in achieving political stability in recent years. Countries like Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador, to give but a few examples, have solved their differences peacefully, helping each other on the path to economic development.
In 2008, twelve Latin American countries have decided to form a defense alliance, Unasur, dedicated to [...]