Geopolitical Calendar: Week of Jan. 13, 2014

Analysis

EUROPE
Jan. 13: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet in Paris to discuss the situation in Syria.
Jan. 13-16: The European Parliament will hold a plenary session.
Jan. 14: Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades will visit the United Kingdom and is expected to meet with British Prime Minister David Cameron. The Cypriot foreign, energy and finance ministers are also expected to visit the United Kingdom while Anastasiades is there.
Jan. 16: French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will discuss the cost of France's military operations with the finance committee of the National Assembly.
Jan. 16: Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is expected to present Greece's goals for its time as EU president to the European Parliament.
Jan. 16-17: A European Parliament delegation will be in Ireland to meet with Irish government officials and discuss the country's experience with the bailout program.
Jan. 18: EasyJet cabin crew members in Italy are expected to strike.

FORMER SOVIET UNION
Jan. 15: The decision on the resumption of production at Kazakhstan's Kashagan oil field will be made after this date.
Jan. 16: The Ukrainian Parliament is expected to adopt the national budget for 2014.

ASIA-PACIFIC
Jan. 13: Bangkok is expected to shut down while the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee holds a major rally.
Jan. 12-15: Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev will visit China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

SOUTH ASIA
Jan. 13: This is the U.S. deadline for the indictment of senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade on visa fraud charges.
Jan. 15-18: South Korean President Park Geun Hye will visit India and hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Jan. 16: The Indian and Pakistani commerce secretaries will meet on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Ministerial Meeting in New Delhi to discuss trade normalization.
Jan. 16: Bangladesh will hold a second round of voting in 392 polling centers across eight constituencies, following its Jan. 5 elections.

MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA
Jan. 14-15: Egypt will hold a referendum on the amended constitution.
Jan. 15: A conference on Syrian refugees will be held in Kuwait.
Jan. 15: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will visit the country's Khuzestan province as his first provincial trip and will attend to the issues of the province.
Jan. 17: A vote will be held among the Syrian National Coalition on whether to participate in the Syria peace talks.

AMERICAS
Unspecified date: Colombia's second main coal exporter, Drummond, will have to fully suspend operations until its port for coal direct loading is ready.
Jan. 13: Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will visit U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington.
Jan. 13: Peace talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, will resume in Havana, Cuba.
Jan. 15: FARC's unilateral cease-fire will end.

AFRICA
Unspecified date: The Nigerian Senate will resume activities next week. A mass defection of members of the People's Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress is expected.
Unspecified date: Rwanda will send a military contingency of 800 soldiers to help peacekeeping operations in the Central African Republic.
Unspecified date: The Kenyan central bank will issue several bond sales totaling 9 billion shillings (about $100 million).
Jan. 13: The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa will meet with representatives of Northam Platinum Ltd. under the aegis of the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
Jan. 15: The hearing for the Westgate Mall terrorist attack suspects will begin in Nairobi, Kenya.
Jan. 15: The Somali federal government and the administration of Somaliland are scheduled to resume negotiations in Ankara, Turkey.
Jan. 13-15: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Mozambique, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and Oman.

Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re

Russia Looks East for New Oil Markets

Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE A few days ago an unknown perpetrator trespassed on the territory of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, causing damage to the property and the vehicles belonging to the trade delegation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during the September 12 press briefing. The diplomat revealed the response by the London police was discouraging. Police told that the case does not have any prospects and is likely to be closed. This was made despite the fact that the British law enforcement was provided with video surveillance tapes and detailed information shedding light on the incident. By this byehavior, British law inforcements indirectly encourage criminals to continue attacks on Russian diplomatic property in the UK. Zakharova’s statement on “Trespassing on the Russian Trade Mission premises in London” ( source ): During our briefings, we have repeatedly discussed compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, specif

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