Child Advocacy Group Encourages Parents To Do Their Homework More than 30,000 high school foreign exchange students who were planning to come to America this fall will instead be staying home due to Covid-19. Director, Danielle Grijalva of the Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students says that may be a good thing. “Too many […]
Turkmenistan opposes the politicization of COVID-19
Elvira Kadyrova “Turkmenistan opposes the politicization of epidemics under any circumstances, since such politicization cannot benefit global anti-epidemic cooperation,” foreign minister Rashid Meredov said during a telephone conversation on Sunday (28 Jun) with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi. Wang thanked Turkmenistan for its support to China in the fight against COVID-19 and praised Turkmenistan’s response […]
Washington and Tashkent to take up the revival of Afghanistan – more questions than answers
Elvira Kadyrova The United States, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan last week held a video conference, inaugurating the new trilateral format of cooperation. The teleconference linked Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, US Under Secretary of State for political affairs David Hale and acting Afghan foreign minister Haneef Atmar. The agenda included issues of peaceful settlement in Afghanistan, […]
Official position of China on some key issues
Dr. Wang Yi, the state councilor and foreign minister of China, conducted a press conference on 24 May 2020 on the sidelines of the third session of the NPC of the 13th convocation. The press conference, which was held in the video format, attracted journalists from the Chinese and foreign media. Dr. Wang Yi, who […]
Macabre dance around peace in Afghanistan
Tariq Saeedi The situation is darkly unique even for Afghanistan, a country where darkly unique situations bubble up almost every day. The hope for peace in Afghanistan was so real a few weeks ago but it is getting smothered by the events that have piled up thick and fast. The peace agreement signed between the […]
Taliban and Central Asia – Part 1
Tariq Saeedi The ink on the peace agreement signed between the USA and the Taliban on 29 February 2020 in Doha had barely dried when the disruptive noises started emerging to defeat the likelihood of peace in Afghanistan. We all know who doesn’t want peace, and why, but for now there is the need to […]
American-Taliban Agreement – Preamble to Peace in Afghanistan
Tariq Saeedi The simplicity of language and the brevity of text show the clarity of mind from both sides. It is a genuine attempt to wrap the longest war of the American history in less than four pages of plainly defined commitments, and the steps that must be taken to rebuild peace in Afghanistan. The […]
Afghanistan – At the threshold of lasting peace, or brink of insane violence?
Tariq Saeedi After more than 18 months of off-again, on-again negotiations, the Taliban and the USA could possibly sign the peace accord on 29 February 2020. Although the terms of the deal have not been made public officially, it is possible to guess some of the details based on the information from the various Taliban […]
American policies creating new stress points – Neutrality is the only viable option Central Asia
Tariq Saeedi Central Asia is simultaneously blessed and cursed by its geography. Except for the soviet period, Central Asia has traditionally seen endless streams of people and cargo moving in all directions. The transit potential has been a dependable source of its prosperity. The region is at the heart of the Eurasian landmass. — The […]
If this is a rules-based world, what are the rules?
Tariq Saeedi US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday (15 February 2020) at the Munich Security Conference that Russia and China were ‘destabilizing the rules-based international system.’ Speaking immediately after him, the US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper decried the ‘Chinese manipulation of the long-standing international rules-based order.’ Rules-based international system? Rules-based order? […]