Diplomacy

"Moldovan President Maia Sandu has kept her word - after forming a government she began talks about meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. To enable this, Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Staff Dmitry Kozak was invited to Chisinau on Wednesday. Former Moldavian Ambassador to Russia Anatol Taranu told the newspaper that an agenda for a meeting of the two presidents was discussed at Sandu’s initiative and, according to him, the meeting will happen and will focus on the issues of Transnistria and the presence of Russian troops on its territory, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported on Thursday (12 August).

“The Council of Ministers has decided to hand over the wanted people to the ICC,” the Sudanese foreign minister, Mariam Al-Mahdi, said on Wednesday (11 August), according to the official SUNA news agency. This was announced during her meeting with the new chief prosecutor of the Court in The Hague, Karim Khan, who is visiting Sudan's capital, Khartoum, this week.

The presence in Tehran of the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, for the inauguration of incoming-president Ebrahim Raisi underscored the significance of relations with Iran for Armenia in the post-2020 Karabakh war context, writes Benyamin Poghosyan in this op-ed where he also discusses Iran's deep interest in the South Caucasus region.

In July, Lithuania declared a state of emergency due to the sudden increased influx of migrants from Belarus. According to Lithuanian politicians, the number of flights between Belarus and Afghanistan has increased as part of a strategy to push more migrants towards Lithuania.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres named Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg as his new Yemen envoy on Friday (6 August).  Grundberg is the fourth UN envoy since the beginning of the civil war in Yemen

Whilst the EU is seen as a valuable partner for Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus, Baku has several concerns over perceived inconsistencies. In this op-ed for commonspace.eu, Vasif Huseynov says Azerbaijan welcomes Brussels playing a more active role in the region but argues that it must maintain balance in its relations with each of the countries.

Several challenges sour the path of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the JCPOA countries. The last round of talks in Vienna concluded on 20 June with all draft deals rejected. Chief US negotiator Robert Maley said that "there is a real risk that they [Iran] are making unrealistic demands about what they can achieve in these talks." 

Azerbaijan has issued a diplomatic demarche to Russia following an outburst of criticism by Russian maverick politician, Vladimir Zhirinovski. The Russian Charge' d'affairs in Baku was summoned to the foreign ministry on Sunday morning and handed a protest note following comments made on air by Zhirinovski during an interview on July 30 on Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station.

In preparation for its Eastern Partnership Summit (EaP) in December, and after drastic regional shifts, the EU is trying hard to improve its position in the South Caucasus. In this commentary for commonspace.eu, Mahammad Mammadov unpacks the EU's strategy in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, looking at what can be gleaned from its recent high-profile visits to the region and billions in newly declared financial assistance.