The Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) was established in 1997 during the annual Consultative Group meeting between the Vietnamese Government and its donor partners, as a not-for-profit, non-political channel for nurturing public-private dialogue to develop a favorable business environment that attracts domestic and foreign private sector investment and stimulates sustainable economic development in Vietnam. This is done primarily through high profile bi-annual Forums between the business community and Vietnamese leadership and through specialized Working Groups cutting across sectors.

Thus far, the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) has not carried out a single reform stipulated by the Minsk II accords.

The first three points of Minsk II deal with the ceasefire and the withdrawal of Kiev and Donbass forces from the line of contact. Both the ceasefire and withdrawal were achieved last spring. To be sure, both sides have occasionally broken the ceasefire with small-scale fighting but the original full ceasefire has largely held and withdrawal of weapons was implemented by both sides.

In number of Seats

Under the UN definition of ‘Aggression’, nothing can in any way prejudice the right to self-determination, freedom and independence, as derived from the Charter, of peoples forcibly deprived of that right and referred to in the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, particularly peoples under colonial and racist regimes or other forms of alien domination: nor the right of these peoples to struggle to that end and to seek and receive support, in accordance with the princip

At the end of 2015, 4189 people worked in the EEAS, both statutory staff and external staff. 1177 of EEAS statutory staff members worked in Headquarters (39%), while 1872 (61%) worked in the EU’s network of 139 EU Delegations and Offices around the world.

The largest group of staff were the 1107 Local Agents, all of whom were based in the Delegations. There were 934 staff members at AD (administrator or diplomatic) level, 631 at AST (assistant) level, 20 at AST-Secretary level and 357 Contract Agents.

Rome and Moscow have a relatively strong and deep-rooted partnership that is likely to stand the test of time. This peculiar partnership works on the basis that neither Russia nor Italy interferes in the domestic affairs of the other, and they recognise their respective spheres of influence. This means that Italy’s Russia policy does not fit well with the EU’s overall approach. It also helps to explain Rome’s reluctant support for EU sanctions against Russia.

Though the EU and Russia have vacillated between political cooperation and confrontation over the last twenty-five years, economic relations between Europe’s two leading players have remained pragmatic and relatively stable. 

Petersburg Dialogue is an open forum for discussing current issues in Russian-German relations. Meetings take place every year, alternating between the two countries, with politicians, academics, cultural figures, and journalists from both countries taking part.

Several trends are likely to affect French policies towards Russia and the Eastern neighbourhood in the coming decade and beyond. France’s foreign policy activism is largely pursued within the EU and NATO.

Judges