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Geopolitical Calendar: Week of Feb. 17, 2014

Analysis


Editor's Note: The following is an internal Stratfor document listing significant meetings and events planned for the next week. Stratfor analysts use this to stay informed of the activities and travel of world leaders and to guide their areas of focus for the week.

EUROPE
Feb. 17: Eurozone finance ministers will meet in Brussels one day before EU finance ministers meet.
Feb. 17: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to meet Ukrainian opposition leaders Vitaly Klitschko and Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Berlin.
Feb. 18: Swiss President Didier Burkhalter will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.
Feb. 18: Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet will meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow to sign a border agreement.
Feb. 18: Negotiations on Iran's nuclear program will resume in Vienna.
Feb. 19: The European Central Bank's governing council will meet in Frankfurt.
Feb. 19: German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet French President Francois Hollande in Paris during a German-French ministerial meeting.
Feb. 20: EU defense ministers are expected to have an informal meeting in Athens.
Feb. 21: Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta will visit Moldova to meet with his Moldovan counterpart, Iurie Leanca.
Feb. 21: Germany's parliament will debate the mandates for German military deployments.

FORMER SOVIET UNION
Feb. 17: The next round of multilateral and bilateral negotiations on Azerbaijan's accession to the World Trade Organization will take place.
Feb. 19: Turkish, Georgian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers will visit Ganja, Azerbaijan, for a trilateral meeting on mutual cooperation issues.
Feb. 19: The Crimean Autonomous Republic's parliament could consider a package of draft laws permitting it to split from Ukraine and join Russia.

ASIA-PACIFIC
Feb. 17-18: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is continuing his trip to China, South Korea and Indonesia.
Feb. 18-20: Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain will pay an official visit to China, where he will discuss infrastructure and connectivity projects with President Xi Jinping.
Feb. 18-21: Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz will visit Japan.
Feb. 20-25 : North Korea and South Korea will hold another round of reunions for families separated by the Korean War.
Feb. 22-25: Singapore will host a Trans-Pacific Partnership ministerial meeting.
Feb. 23: Thailand's Election Commission will hold another round of advance elections on this date.

SOUTH ASIA
Feb. 17-23: Pakistan will continue to observe the annual Cobra Gold military drills led by the United States and Thailand. Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia will participate, and 11 countries, including Russia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan and Vietnam, are also observing.
Feb. 17: Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram will present the interim budget for the upcoming fiscal year in parliament.
Feb. 17-20: The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Council of Ministers will meet in Male, with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka participating.
Feb. 18-20: Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will visit the Maldives for bilateral talks.
Feb. 18-20: Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa will visit India.
Feb. 21: India's final parliamentary session before May 31 elections will conclude.
Feb. 22: The 18th Wharton India Economic Forum, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, will commence.
Feb. 23: India's Border Security Force and Bangladesh's Border Guards will hold a commander-level meeting in Meghalaya, India, to discuss Indian allegations that insurgents are using Bangladesh as a sanctuary.

MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA
Feb. 17-18: The Ninth Parliamentary Assembly will continue in Tehran.
Feb. 17-18: Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby continute his trip to Kuwait, where will meet with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah and other senior officials.
Feb 18: Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Ogtay Asadov will attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Tehran.
Feb. 18: The next round of talks between Iran and the P-5+1 group will take place.
Feb. 18: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Kuwait City, where he is expected to discuss the Syria conflict with his Kuwaiti counterpart. The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry has said that the visit is part of regularly scheduled strategic meetings.
Feb. 18-19: Emirati Parliament Speaker Mohammed Ahmed Al-Murr may attend the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation Parliamentary Assembly in Tehran.
Feb. 20: Elections for the Libyan constituent commission, which will draft the country's new constitution, will take place.

AMERICAS
Unspecified date: A Mercosur summit will take place in Caracas, Venezuela.
Feb. 17: EU and U.S. officials will meet in Washington to discuss the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Feb. 18: The United States will host Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for a three-day working meeting to discuss financing for the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Trade and Transmission Project.
Feb. 19: A U.S.-Canada-Mexico summit will take place in Toluca, Mexico.

AFRICA
Feb. 17-21: The International Criminal Court will resume its trial of Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto and Joshua Sang.
Feb. 19: The European Union will decide whether it will lift the economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe in 2002.
Feb. 20: Candidates who are considering participating in Nigeria's National Conference, which is designed to address major political and economic reform, face the nomination deadline.

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