October 12, 2010
The IMF’s semi-annual meeting in Washington this weekend has failed to produce concrete proposals aimed at avoiding a currency war. The unrealistic pressure put on China to allow the yuan to suddenly appreciate by 20 percent has been strongly resisted by Zhou Xiaochuan, the Chinese central bank’s governor. He had good reason to do that:… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
October 11, 2010
The Iranian news agency Farsi and Western media have recently reported that Iranian officials are ready to come back to the negotiating table to discuss their nuclear program with G5 + 1 countries (USA, France, Britain, Russia, China plus Germany). According to the same sources, negotiations could begin late October or early November. In the… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
October 8, 2010
In the 19th century, the Suez Canal was the main engineering project meant to facilitate international trade between continents. In the 20th century, the honour went to the US, for building the Panama Canal and thus shortening trade routes by leaps and bounds. In our century, we’re about to witness the launch of the Eurasia… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
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Energy Supply, English, External Relations , Asia, Central Asia, China, Kazakhstan, oil, resources, Russia |
October 6, 2010
On the 4th of October, Nepalese authorities seized the ballots of Tibetan refugees voting in Kathmandu to select candidates for next year’s Tibetan government-in-exile general elections. As Nepal is itself in the midst of a powerful political crisis, its authorities are loath to antagonise either India or China on the Tibet issue. The approximately 120,000-strong… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
October 5, 2010
Over the past few years, China has become a major player in Central Asia’s oil & gas and in Afghanistan’s mining sector. Its investments in the region are an important part of its worldwide FDI strategy. To date, China’s biggest purchases of gas come from Turkmenistan. In 2009 the Chinese president inaugurated a gas pipeline… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
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Energy Supply, English, External Relations , Afghanistan, Asia, Central Asia, China, gas, oil, Pakistan, pipelines, resources, Russia |
October 4, 2010
Last Saturday and Sunday the citizens of two small European countries, Latvia and Bosnia, went to the polls to elect new parliamentary and presidential leaders, respectively. Both countries are experiencing severe ethnic tensions that could, if unchecked, drag into the fray larger neighbouring federations, such as the EU or Russia. Parliamentary elections in Latvia Latvians… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
The sovereign debt crisis, which started in Greece, has engulfed Spain, Ireland, Portugal and even Poland and Romania, EU members that are not yet part of the eurozone. The recent Toronto meeting of Western heads of state has sadly contributed to aggravating matters, as it mandated participating political leaders to cut their countries’ budget deficits… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
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, Asia, China, France, Latin America, neoliberalism, oil, Romania |
