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People-to-People Diplomacy still matters in Central Asia
May 29, 2026On 20th of May, The United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus Kyrgyzstan's resolution "Peaceful Resolution of Border Disputes," prepared jointly with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and with the support of more than 40 countries. The document reflects the experience of Central Asian countries in peacefully resolving border issues through dialogue, negotiations, and international law. The resolution emphasizes that border disputes should be resolved exclusively peacefully and by mutual consent. Bishkek believes that Central Asia's experience can serve as an example of good-neighborliness and a contribution to international security. The text also recalls Kyrgyzstan's progress in resolving border issues with its neighbors. In 2023, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan completed the delimitation of their shared border, resolving issues around the Kempir-Abad reservoir and territorial exchange. Particular attention is paid to the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, which has previously seen armed clashes, including the September 2022 conflict that resulted in numerous casualties and mass displacement. Following this, the parties intensified negotiations, fully agreed on the disputed areas by the end of 2024, and in March 2025, Presidents Sadyr Japarov and Emomali Rahmon signed a border agreement and reopened the closed checkpoints.
Endgame Without an End
May 27, 2026Eighty-eight days after American and Israeli aircraft struck Iran in what was billed as a campaign to break the Islamic Republic, the war has produced an outcome few in Washington or Jerusalem anticipated: a wounded but intact regime, a humiliated coalition, and a draft agreement that reads more like a managed retreat than a victory. Negotiators in Doha are circling a memorandum of understanding that, if signed, would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, lift the US naval blockade, and defer everything else — nuclear stockpiles, sanctions architecture, the war in Lebanon — to a sixty-day negotiating window that may well be extended indefinitely. This is not the agreement Donald Trump promised. It is not the dismantlement Benjamin Netanyahu sought. It is, by the candid admission of one senior US official quoted by Axios, a deal built on “relief for performance” — a polite phrase for the recognition that further coercion has reached the point of diminishing returns. The question now is whether even this modest framework can survive the political minefields on both sides over the coming days.
The Empty Offer: Latest on Russia-Ukraine War
May 23, 2026On May 9, surrounded by the pageantry of Russia's 81st Victory Day, Vladimir Putin stepped before reporters in Moscow and announced that the war in Ukraine was "coming to an end." He said he was ready to meet Volodymyr Zelensky — in Moscow, or in a neutral country, any time. It sounded, on the surface, like an opening. Read the fine print and it was something else entirely: Putin would meet Zelensky only once the final terms of a settlement had already been agreed. The meeting he was offering was not a negotiation. It was a signing ceremony for a deal Ukraine had not made and would not make. That empty offer is the image that defines May 2026. The choreography of diplomacy performed with full conviction; the architecture of peace absent. Three tracks — military, diplomatic, and geopolitical — moved at once in this period, and in opposing directions. Reading them together is the clearest guide to what comes next.
The Iran Ceasefire: A Pause, Not a Settlement
April 19, 2026This article examines the fragile ceasefire between Iran and the United States as a temporary pause rather than a lasting settlement. It argues that despite severe military and economic pressure, Iran has not abandoned its core red lines on uranium enrichment, missiles, and strategic leverage in the Strait of Hormuz, while the post-war consolidation of hardline power has made diplomacy even more difficult. By exploring the limits of coercion, the risks of renewed escalation, and the narrow path toward a workable agreement, the article shows why the next phase of the crisis may be decided less by battlefield outcomes than by endurance, leverage, and political realism.
The Islamabad Deadlock: U.S.–Iran Negotiations Under Ceasefire
April 12, 2026This article examines the Islamabad meeting between the United States and Iran as a politically significant but inconclusive attempt to manage a dangerous postwar crisis. It argues that the talks stalled because both sides entered with incompatible assumptions about leverage, sovereignty, and acceptable compromise, while Pakistan emerged as an important mediator that helped preserve diplomacy without resolving the core disputes.