Geopolitical Calendar: Week of Feb. 27, 2012

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Editor's Note: The following is an internal Stratfor document listing significant meetings and events planned for the next week. Stratfor analysts use this document to stay informed of the activities and travel of world leaders and to guide their areas of focus for the week.

 
EUROPE

• Feb. 27: The German parliament will vote on the Greek bailout package.
• Feb. 27: EU foreign ministers will discuss Serbia's EU candidacy and sanctions on Syria during a meeting in Brussels.
• Feb. 28-29: Students in the Czech Republic are expected to stage protests against a planned university reform.
• Feb. 29: The European Central Bank will conduct its second three-year refinancing operation.
• Feb. 29: Pilots from the Spanish airline Iberia are expected to join ground and cabin staff in a 24-hour strike to protest company plans to introduce a new low-cost airline.
• Feb. 29: The European Trade Union Confederation is scheduled to hold an anti-austerity protest across the European Union.
• March 1: Three Italian trade unions are expected to hold a four-hour transport strike.
• March 1-2: EU head of states are expected to meet in Brussels. The top item on the agenda will be the second Greek bailout program.

FORMER SOVIET UNION

• Feb. 27: The European Union and Armenia will negotiate a Visa Facilitation Agreement and a Readmission Agreement in Yerevan.
• March 1: The Belarusian consulate in Daugavpils, Latvia, and the Latvian consulate in Vitebsk, Belarus, will begin to issue permits for visa-free travel under an interstate local border traffic agreement.
• March 1: About 20,000 people are expected to attend protests in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.
• March 2: Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman will visit Azerbaijan to discuss bilateral relations.

MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA

• Feb. 27: Qatar will continue to host a conference to defend the status of Jerusalem.
• Feb. 27: Abd Rabboh Mansour Hadi will be inaugurated as the new Yemeni president.
• Feb. 28: Turkey will begin exploratory natural gas drilling in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
• Feb. 28: The results of the Egyptian Shura Council election will be announced.
• March 2: Iran's parliamentary elections will be held.

EAST ASIA

• Feb. 27-March 1: South Korean Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik will continue his visit to Germany and Belgium to discuss relations between South Korea and North Korea with European leaders.
• Feb. 27: Former Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd will challenge Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard for leadership of the Labor Party in a vote.
• Feb. 27-March 5: Singapore's armed forces and air force will conduct land and sea military exercises.
• Feb. 27-28: World Bank President Robert Zoellick will continue his visit to Beijing to present the new World Bank China growth report.
• Feb. 27-28: Japanese and U.S. officials will meet to discuss the realignment of U.S. troops stationed in Okinawa. This is the second such meeting since Feb. 6 and will be led by Takeo Akiba, deputy director of Japan's North American Affairs Bureau, and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Jim Zumwalt.
• Feb. 28-Feb. 29: Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin will visit China, where she will meet with Vice Premier Li Keqiang and other Chinese officials to discuss bilateral relations.
• March 2: Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi will meet with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan in Seoul to arrange an agenda for an upcoming summit meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak.

AMERICAS

• Unspecified date: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will have a lesion in his pelvic region operated on in Havana, Cuba.
• Unspecified date: Peru's government will publish the Strategic Production Sector Multiannual Plan for 2012-2016.
• Unspecified date: Chile will temporarily close its borders with Peru to certify that landmines displaced by rains and flooding have been cleared out.
• Unspecified date: The Mexican Senate will receive the U.S.-Mexico accord for oil field development along the countries' borders.
• Feb. 27: Brazilian telecommunications company Oi will vote on a corporate restructuring.
• Feb. 28: Mercosur delegates will meet to discuss new products and rates of the common external tariffs.
• Feb. 28: A Maritime Shipping Sector Dialogue meeting between the European Union and Brazil will take place in Brasilia.
• Feb. 29: Peru and Ecuador will hold their fifth bilateral meeting that will focus on reducing poverty.
• Feb. 29: Russia and Guatemala will install a visa-free travel regime. Citizens from either country will be able to visit the other for up to 90 days without a special permit.
• Feb. 29: The Honduran economic plan with the International Monetary Fund will expire. A new program for the next two to three years will be planned.
• March 1: Minimum pension wages will rise in Argentina.
• March 1: Peru's free trade agreement with Japan will go into effect.
• March 1: General Confederation of Labor of the Argentine Republic head Hugo Moyano will hold a rally in Buenos Aires to commemorate the declaration of workers' rights.
• March 1: Anti-mining protesters in Argentina will conduct a series of mobilizations across country with as major centers La Rioja and Catamarca.
• March 4: Israeli President Shimon Peres will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington.

AFRICA

• March 1: The joint Ethiopian, South Sudanese and Kenyan Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor project will break ground.