Ahto Lobjakas

Also by Ahto Lobjakas

• May 15, 2008

  Gauging Lithuania's Motives

  Vilnius' decision to block the start of partnership talks with Russia has rekindled fears among the EU's older states that their "newer" counterparts are not above using their membership to settle private scores.

• May 12, 2008

  Visiting EU Delegation Offering Support To Georgia, But Little Else

  The foreign ministers of Slovenia, Sweden, Poland, and Lithuania have begun a visit to Tbilisi, the second high-profile EU visit to the Georgian capital in less than a week. While Georgia interprets the visits as clear EU backing in its escalating standoff with Russia over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the bloc's representatives are keen to tell Tbilisi not to read too much into it.

• May 06, 2008

  EU Looks To Middle East For Nabucco Pipeline Supplies

  BRUSSELS -- Worried about its dependency on Russian natural gas, European Union officials have met in Brussels with energy officials from Turkey and six Mideast countries in an effort to fill Nabucco, a planned gas pipeline running from Turkey to Austria and beyond.

• May 06, 2008

  War With Russia 'Very Close'

  Tbilisi is warning Western governments that Moscow is trying to provoke a conflict and is asking the EU and NATO to pressure Russia into reversing its decisions to forge closer ties with its separatist regions.

• April 29, 2008

  How Vulnerable Are Countries To Cyberattacks? Ask Estonia!

  TALLINN -- You don't know what you've got until you lose it. Rarely has the truth of that adage been driven home at a national scale as forcefully as in Estonia during the weeks that followed April 26, 2007.

• April 23, 2008

  One Europe, Two Totalitarianisms, No Consensus

  The debate over the historical record of communism simmers on in the European Union. The latest discussion revealed the deep divisions between old and new member states.

• April 17, 2008

  NATO: Iraq Asks Alliance For Greater Assistance

  Prime Minister al-Maliki at NATO headquarters in Brussels (AFP) BRUSSELS -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has urged NATO countries to expand the alliance's training effort in his country and to donate more equipment to Iraq's fledgling army.

• April 17, 2008

  Talking Trade

  The Iraqi prime minister's visit to Brussels highlights a new dynamic in mutual relations: an emphasis on what Iraq can do for Europe, instead of the other way around.

• April 15, 2008

  Gas-Export Offer By Turkmenistan Seen As 'Breakthrough' By EU

  BRUSSELS -- The European Union says Turkmenistan has made its first-ever concrete gas export offer to Europe.

• April 11, 2008

  Commentary: Did Ukraine And Georgia Lose A NATO Battle, Or The War?

  Solana's assessment contains the bitter truth: that neither country is ready for NATO or the EU (epa) The general consensus following the recent NATO summit was that Georgia and Ukraine fell victim to a power struggle within the alliance between the United States and "new Europe" on one side, and Germany and France on the other.

• April 10, 2008

  So Close, Yet So Far For Belgrade's EU Dreams

  The European Union is racing against time -- and some of its own member states -- to create incentives for Serbian voters to choose a Western future when they go to the polls next month.

• April 08, 2008

  EU Official Says Political System Holds Ukraine Back

  BRUSSELS -- Ukraine's troubles in integrating with the West can be attributed to a lack of "political solidity."

• March 31, 2008

  NATO In Afghanistan | 'Help Wanted'

  As NATO leaders meet in Bucharest this week, the patience of the countries bearing the brunt of fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan is wearing thin. And with no military solution in sight, NATO is turning to other organizations for help.

• March 27, 2008

  Georgia, Ukraine Go To Wire Ahead Of NATO Summit

  One week before NATO leaders convene in Bucharest, Georgian officials have traveled to the alliance's headquarters in Brussels for a last-gasp bid to secure their country a Membership Action Plan (MAP), seen as a virtual guarantee of future membership.

• March 07, 2008

  Tbilisi Outraged At Moscow Withdrawal From Abkhaz Treaty

  Tbilisi officials have decried as "immoral and dangerous" Russia's decision to withdraw from a CIS treaty imposing sanctions on Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia.

• March 05, 2008

  EU Praises Croatia, Fears Serbia Backlash

  BRUSSELS -- A snapshot of the race toward the goal of EU membership reveals a scattered field. Croatia is long out of the starting blocks with Macedonia about to do the same, while Albania and Montenegro are still warming up. Serbia has yet to show up and threatens to pull out, should Kosovo also be invited.

• February 14, 2008

  Trying To Keep It Together

  Tbilisi's credentials as a reformist standard-bearer have suffered since President Saakashvili's routing of opposition protests and his controversial reelection. Does he still have the power to keep his country together?

• February 13, 2008

  Energy-Rich, And Hungry For More

  Economically, it's been a very good year for Azerbaijan. But Baku is already thinking about future riches, and asking Europe to help by speeding up the Nabucco pipeline project.

• February 12, 2008

  EU Loophole Could Spell End To Uzbek Visa Ban

  BRUSSELS -- It is looking increasingly likely that the European Union will quietly abandon one of the key sanctions imposed on Uzbekistan in the wake of the bloody events in Andijon in May 2005, when security forces killed hundreds of demonstrators.

• February 08, 2008

  Azerbaijan Up For A Fight, But Armenia Unbowed

  President Ilham Aliyev told EU officials that Azerbaijan is ready to "wage war" with neighboring Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

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