Kazakhstan

That’s the question raised by this terrific Wall Street Journal story. The firm is GlobalOptions, an extremely well-connected company run by, among others, former FBI and CIA officials.

The United States promised Kazakhstan on Friday to help it bring its armed forces up to NATO standards in a new military cooperation pact certain to irritate Russia, Kazakhstan’s former Soviet overlord.

Eight member countries of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program have agreed to a strategy to improve Central Asia's transport infrastructure. The plan was agreed at a two-day CAREC ministerial conference ending today in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. The meeting brought together ministers from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and five other multilateral institutions also attended.

Even as Russo-American tensions smolder from Eastern Europe and Central Asia to the Arctic seabed, the secretary of state is denying the onset of a renewed Cold War. Yet, unmistakable signals of a counter-balancing effort by Russia and China were sent last month through the largest-ever war games of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (S.C.O.), a six-nation anti-United States alliance.

The SCO member presidents will be joined by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad (his second summit) and Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar as well as Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and Indian Oil and Gas Minister Murli Deora, all representing countries that have "observer" status in the SCO.

MOSCOW. (Jibek Syzdykova for RIA Novosti) - Developing as an international agency, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has been responding to the geopolitical situation in Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. Former Soviet republic made repeated attempts to streamline integration by setting up different associations, but they were not destined to live for many reasons. Experts are unanimous that the SCO is a success. Many call it a universal model of international partnership and this is no exaggeration.

Preparations have been completed for next month's joint anti-terrorist exercise by Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states. The exercise, called "Peace Mission 2007," is the biggest military exercise in the organization's history. All six SCO members -- China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- will take part.