Author: Tamazi Donauri

The Georgian capital city of Tbilisi is hosting the ninth edition of Georgia-China Xinjiang Commodity Exhibition between Wednesday and Friday, showcasing wine and alcoholic beverages, fruit juices, dry fruits, spices, textile and light industry products produced in the Xinjiang province. Georgian Deputy Agriculture Minister Iuri Nozadze, who attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition, highlighted the importance of the fair in establishing business ties between the two countries, noting Georgia was the first country in the region to sign a free trade deal with China. [The deal] provides even more incentives to entrepreneurs, importers and exporters. At the same time,…

Türkiye has hailed a deal between arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan to swap prisoners of war and work toward normalizing ties torn by decades of strife over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan reclaimed the long-disputed enclave after a lightning offensive against Armenian separatists in September. Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry said it “welcomes” the Dec. 7 breakthrough, and supports the work by the Caucasus neighbors on “adopting additional confidence-building steps.” “We hope that a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia is signed as soon as possible,” the ministry said. The two sides agreed in a joint statement to seize “a historical chance to achieve a long-awaited peace in the…

The Caucasus neighbours have been locked in a decades-long conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan reclaimed after a lightning offensive against Armenian separatists in September. Both countries have said a peace agreement could be signed by the end of the year, but peace talks — mediated separately by the European Union, the United States and Russia — have seen little progress. On Thursday, the two sides agreed in a joint statement to seize “a historical chance to achieve a long-awaited peace in the region”. “The two countries reconfirm their intention to normalize relations and to reach the peace treaty on the basis of respect…

Petro-state Azerbaijan has cleared a key hurdle to host next year’s UN climate summit despite the controversy over COP28 taking place in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates. Armenia said Thursday it was dropping its rival bid for COP29 in a goodwill gesture to try to normalise relations with its neighbour after Azerbaijan seized back an Armenian-backed enclave in a lightning war in September. A decision on next year’s host is expected before the end of COP28 on Tuesday in Dubai, with the talks focused on whether to phase down fossil fuels being held under the helm of the head of…

Russia stands for the complete unblocking of economic and transport communications in the South Caucasus, Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said during a weekly briefing, Trend reports. “We advocate for the comprehensive unblocking of economic and transportation communications in the South Caucasus, rather than simply one single route. We advocate for this to occur under transparent, mutually beneficial conditions. It’s not just words, it’s work,” she said. She emphasized that such work in the interests of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as their neighbors, is being carried out within the framework of a trilateral working group co-chaired by…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Bulgaria has withdrawn its bid to host next year’s global climate summit, clearing the way for the conference to take place in oil-rich Azerbaijan. Bulgarian Environment Minister Julian Popov told POLITICO that the country was sending its letter of withdrawal on Friday evening, one day after Armenia gave up on its aspirations to host COP29 and backed Baku. “In the spirit of goodwill and for the sake of a successful climate conference hosted by the Eastern European Group, the Republic of Bulgaria is hereby withdrawing its candidature for hosting COP29,” a statement subsequently sent by the Bulgarian environment…

Brussels (4/11 – 25) It’s an old story, a broken record: war crimes in the Middle East, encouraged and stoked by outsiders with their own agenda. Israel, offended and humiliated by the 7 October attacks for which they had repeatedly been warned by Egypt. Hamas, encouraged and bankrolled by Israel initially, in its effort to undercut the appeal of Al-Fatah, has turned into Frankenstein’s Monster, breaching a border that was trumpeted as the most invincible in the world, with 24/7 surveillance, sensors to detect tunnels, full camera coverage and on and on – yet several thousand Hamas warriors parachuted in…

On November 12, it was reported that France sent a batch of Bastion armoured vehicles to Armenia as part of the newly established military cooperation program with the South Caucasian country. The batch, visually comprising 22 armoured vehicles, reached the port of Poti in Georgia and subsequently proceeded to Armenia via rail transport. In addition to armoured vehicles, France has earlier announced selling air defence systems to Armenia – writes Vasif Huseynov In October, a month after the collapse of the Armenian separatist entity in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, Armenia signed a contract to acquire three Ground Master 200 radars produced by Thales,…

A new ranking has given 22 European cities the highest score for their transparency and bold climate action. Twenty-two cities in Europe have been recognised for their climate leadership in a major global ranking. CDP, a non-profit charity which runs the world’s system for countries, companies and public authorities to disclose their environmental impact, has released its annual list of planet-friendly cities. Nearly one-fifth of European municipalities scored by CDP this year made it into the prestigious ‘A List’ – those that are taking the most ambitious climate actions. Nordic countries led the way, accounting for more than half of…

The relationship between the United States and Azerbaijan has emerged as a priority issue, as highlighted by the recent press briefing conducted by Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for the US Department of State. In a briefing on Tuesday, Miller conveyed that Washington is committed to maintaining diplomatic engagements with Baku to safeguard US national interests. “We never said that we’re not going to continue to engage with Azerbaijan. That would be against our interests as the United States of America. We think it would be against the interests of peace and security in the region for us to just drop all of…