... started mounting within European institutions. Formally, the European Commission praised the success of the reforms carried out in Georgia under EU programs, but it also noted that Tbilisi had refused time and again to act as an agent for the West in the South Caucasus, a region neighboring Russia. Georgian authorities were adamant that national interests dictated the principle of non-interference in the power struggles between the world’s major players, while Georgia’s Western partners, on the contrary, expected it to side with the EU and the ...
... of Turkey to the Israeli actions. For Iran, which projects itself as one of the main defenders of Palestinian interests, the South Caucasus becomes an arena where its rivalry with Israel and indirectly with NATO and the U.S. continues.
In the mid-2000s,... ... their presence in the Caucasus is becoming more and more tangible. China has made it into the TOP-3 largest trading partners of Georgia. Despite Tbilisi’s strategic interaction with NATO, the U.S. and the EU, Georgia signed its first free trade agreement ...
... growth of innovative businesses.
Opportunities
Under-explored markets such as renewable energy, biological agriculture and high-tech;
Affordable and skilled labour resources available;
Possible regional cooperation between the three main countries - Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan - instead of seeking different alliances outside the South Caucasus
Threats
Remaining ethnic tensions (internal and external) and the constraint of continuous political repetition compulsion regarding the de facto autonomous territories;
Laissez-faire the corruption and cronyism at all levels of the ...
..., we are witnessing fierce rivalry between Russia and the West for influence over the geopolitical space stretching from the South Caucasus to the Balkans. However, this familiar picture requires a certain touch-up.
In recent years, one of the dominant ... ... the status of Crimea and the prospects for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the territorial integrity of
Georgia
. At the same time, Turkey (which has the second-largest army in NATO in terms of manpower) does not blindly follow Washington’s ...
... region, and how to mitigate the risks of the conflicts?
The South Caucasus and Southeast Ukraine are the two significant hotspots in Europe. There are still some tensions in the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict while the Georgian-Abkhaz and the Georgian-Ossetian ones are quite stable. Changes in the South Caucasus military balance have greatly affected the future of these confrontations. For Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, it is difficult to find stability because of a lack of official open-source data precludes effective conflict resolution....
... Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, and his advisor Pietro Guastamacchia visited Russian International Affairs Council.
On March 20, 2019, Rudolf Michalka, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, and his advisor Pietro Guastamacchia visited Russian International Affairs Council.
The following issues were discussed during the meeting: current state of Russia-Georgia relations, the possibility for achieving progress on the Abkhaz and South Ossetian issues, as well as the role of international organizations and multilateral formats in stabilizing the situation in the South Caucasus region.
... on the Russian market, the re-initiation of regular flights between the two countries, progress on the question of visas for Georgians – Russia continues to treat Georgia as one of the main geopolitical threats to its national interests in the South Caucasus. To a large extent it is explained by the aspiration of Georgia to join NATO and the EU, which contradict the security interests of Russia. As a result, full-scale cooperation between Russia and Georgia (or Russia and EU involving Georgia) on possible and perspective energy projects seems hardly feasible in ...
... Caucasus Emirate, were eliminated
[6]
. In Azerbaijan, religious radicals have been split (in the southern part, they look up to Iran and Shiite Islam, while in the northern part – to Dagestan and the Salafi movement)
[7]
. Commenting on threats to the Georgian national security, Defense Minister Mrs. Tinatin Khidasheli said at the end of July 2015 that she did not expect the Islamic State to create any problems in Georgia
[8]
.
Experts also point out that the adherents of the specific, to put it mildly,...
