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India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), announced in late December that it would no longer allow Indian importers to trade with Iran using the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), saying it wanted to explore an alternate means of facilitating trade-related payments. The move came as something of a surprise, even though the U.S. had been pushing India to take this measure for quite some time. For its part, Iran did not welcome the move and initially put the onus on India to find an alternative mechanism. Talks are currently underway to resolve the issue. Nevertheless, the episode has […]

Estonia has become the the 17th member of the Euro Zone despite the collective currency’s ongoing troubles. The Euro became official tender in the Baltic state after the country’s original cash, the kroon, was finally phased out over the weekend. Estonia is the first former Soviet state to adopt the Euro.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono just concluded a landmark visit to India, where he was the guest of honor at India’s 62nd Republic Day celebrations on Jan. 26. Ties between the two countries stretch back to India’s first Republic Day celebration in 1950, when Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, was also the guest of honor. India had previously given unstinting support to Indonesia’s struggle for independence from the Dutch, convening a special U.N. conference on the subject in New Delhi in 1949 to further mobilize support. The two countries went on to become leading members of the Nonaligned Movement, founded in […]

Many observers of the Korean Peninsula have traced the apparent relaxation of tensions there to the supporting contributions made by China and the United States, with attention now focusing on the upcoming inter-Korean dialogue. But Russia’s role in this process also deserves mention, since Moscow can be a positive force regarding the Koreas. Throughout the past decade, under Presidents Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, Russian government policy toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) has remained remarkably consistent, adhering to several key goals, strategies, and tactics. In the security realm, Russia’s objectives include […]