Geopolitical Calendar: Week of July 14, 2014

Analysis

EUROPE
July 14: The EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council will be held in Brussels.
July 14-15: EU ministers for development will hold an informal meeting in Florence, Italy.
July 14-17: The European Parliament will hold a plenary session in Strasbourg, France.
July 14-17: European Parliament committee meetings will be held in Strasbourg, France.
July 14-18: The sixth round of talks for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will be held in Brussels.
July 15: The European Parliament will vote on the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as the European Commission president.
July 16: The European Council will gather in Brussels.
July 16: The European Commission will host a donor conference for Serbia and Bosnia focusing on helping them recover from the devastating May floods that damaged infrastructure and left thousands homeless.
July 16: The EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council will meet in Brussels.
July 16: The European Central Bank Governing Council will gather in Frankfurt, Germany.
July 16-17: EU environment ministers will hold informal meetings in Milan, Italy.
July 17: EU finance ministers will meet in Brussels to discuss the EU 2015 budget.
July 17-18: EU employment ministers will hold informal meetings in Italy.

FORMER SOVIET UNION
Unspecified date: Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will visit Ukraine in July to pledge Japan's economic assistance to the nation. Kishida will also give up to 150 billion yen (about $1.5 billion) in economic assistance funds to Ukraine, which the Japanese government has already officially announced, and confirm Japan's continued cooperation with Kiev.
July 14: The European Union will announce its decision on whether it will allow Gazprom to access 100 percent of the OPAL natural gas pipeline.

ASIA-PACIFIC
Unspecified date: Officials from the Zambian government will travel to China to study its Multi-Facility Economic Zone concept..
July 13-15: The Bank of Japan will hold a meeting on monetary policy.
July 14-19: South Korea and China will hold the 12th round of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement.
July 17: Campaigning for South Korea's special parliamentary elections will begin.

SOUTH ASIA
July 16: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will travel to India to discuss global health, improved access to medicine, climate change and economic development.
July 19: Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq will send a representative to attend an iftar party in New Delhi hosted by Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit.
July 19: The State Bank of Pakistan will announce its new monetary policy.
July 20: India will pay the third installment of its $550 million oil debt to Iran before this date.

MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA
July 18: The Egyptian High Parliamentary Elections Committee headed by Judge Ayman Abbas will hold its first meeting to illustrate the arrangements and legal procedures regulating the upcoming parliamentary elections. The elections will be the final step in the Egyptian government's transition.

AMERICAS
Unspecified date: The foreign ministers of Venezuela and El Salvador will meet in Caracas to discuss a new trade pact.
July 14-16: Russian President Vladimir Putin will continue his visit to Brazil and will speak with President Dilma Rousseff. He will also attend the BRICS summit and the closing ceremony of the World Cup.
July 15: Representatives from the Colombian government and FARC will resume peace talks in Havana, Cuba.
July 15: The Venezuelan government will announce measures to restructure its public administration.
July 15-17: The BRICS summit will take place in Fortaleza, Brazil.
July 15-23. Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba.
July 16: UNASUR and BRICS leaders will meet in Fortaleza, Brazil.
July 17-23: Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Cuba, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela after attending the BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil.

AFRICA
July 14-18: The Seventh Annual Conference for African Ministers in Charge of Integration will take place in Ezulwini, Swaziland.
July 16: The African Union Peace and Security Council will discuss its operation in Mali and review its security strategy in the Sahel region. The meeting will be held in its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
July 16: Malian government officials will meet and discuss peace with northern Tuareg separatist rebels in Algiers, Algeria.
July 16: Youths, students and other groups in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria will carry out a one-million-man march in Abuja to show their support for President Goodluck Jonathan's re-election campaign.

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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