Diplomacy

A new round of UN-mediated Syrian peace talks are starting this week in Geneva to agree on national principles before drafting a new constitution. Geir Pedersen, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, has been pushing towards revising Syria's constitution as a step towards ending the country's nine-year-old civil war.

A Montenegro foreign ministry statement said that Bozovic “directly disrespected” Montenegro by describing a 1918 decision to join Yugoslavia, then a Serbia-dominated kingdom, as an act of “liberation” and “free will” by the Montenegrin people.

Despite being a diplomatic achievement for the Syrian opposition, the Caesar Act offers only painfully narrow opportunities for progress in the peace process in Syria argues Noman Ahmed in this op-ed

Russia sees its role in a peacekeeping force in Karabakh as a way of consolidating its influence in the region, argues Benyamin Poghosyan in this op-ed.

Benyamin Poghosyan discusses the relationship between Armenia and Georgia and argues that despite the close relations, and the efforts of the leaders, it is not yet strategic.

The Conference on Libya held in Berlin on Sunday (19 January) was high diplomacy at its best. In this week's Monday Commentary Dennis Sammut asks what if the same level of commitment by the top leaders of the top countries of the world is put in solving some of the other big challenges and conflicts?

In the Karabakh peace process there has been a reluctance by track 1 participants to engage properly with track II initiatives. The EU supported EPNK process has shown that unconventional diplomacy has much to contribute, and its energy must now be put to good use.

In this comment, the political editor of commonspace.eu says that the message of the European Union, to the region and beyond, is that its engagement with the South Caucasus is ambitious and long lasting.

The Brussels meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers scheduled for Wednesday (11 July) is an opportunity to re-energise the Karabakh peace process. It should not be missed!