Black clouds are still billowing over Syria. The thunder of civil war is grumbling. But it’s not only the government of Bashar al-Assad and the insurgents who are fighting. Vigilant also are much stronger external forces. The USA, Russia, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia have their own intentions and are striving to extract for themselves as much as possible benefit from the Syrian conflict. In addition to political intrigues, it is economic interests that play here the first fiddle. According to some experts, the main cause for this war is not at all the pursuit of democracy, but rather alluring energy resources.
The port of Antwerp is the second largest port in Europe. More than 150,000 people work in the port, the cargo turnover is 190 mln tons, revenue – EUR 17.7 bln. According to experts, 60% of Antwerp population works in the port. It’s not a surprise that the port general manager plays an important role not only in the port, but in the city, holding a position of deputy mayor
It seems that quite not so long ago – on February 6, 2003, – after a bilateral agreement was signed by the then Lithuanian and Ukrainian Prime Ministers Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas and Viktor Yanukovich, the first Viking Train set out on its journey from the port of Ilyichevsk towards Klaipėda. Already at the end of that year it could be discerned that the project was launched successfully and would be accompanied by luck and success in the future. During the decade of its existence, the train has transported 5 million tons of freight and has encouraged cooperation among the countries of the region.
Lithuania is continuing to strengthen its positions and competitiveness in the international transportations market. In order to maximally utilise the convenient geographic position of Lithuania and the potential offered by the European Union (EU) for development in the transport sector, new ways are being searched as to how to derive more revenue from international freight transportation by rail.
In its colourful history, Turkey quite often did not manage to make up its mind as to whether it is a country belonging to the West or to the East. For us it is also difficult to understand this country: it is trivial, but if it is already participating in the Eurovision Song Contest, so maybe it belongs to Europe? Especially that Turkey is talking of its plans to access the European Union over more than a year already, furnishing from time to time new arguments why it should belong to the community of our continent. Nevertheless, the Islamic religion, a different world-view and close connections with the Near East countries are distancing and shutting it off from our Western world.
