Leaders of the countries of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, which comprise a coalition known as GUAM, will meet in the Moldovan capital Chisinau on April 22 to discuss a revitalization of this organization, which was formed with U.S. backing in 1997.
The Presidents of Lithuania, Romania and Poland, as well as U.S. Department of State senior negotiator for Eurasian conflicts and Caspian energy issues Steven Mann, are also expected to take part in the summit as observers. A meeting of GUAM Foreign Ministers in Chisinau on April 21 preceded the leaders’ summit.
It is anticipated that boosting of regional cooperation and discussions over conflict resolution issues, which are common for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova, will top the summit’s agenda.
Reportedly, Georgian and Ukraine Presidents Mikheil Saakashvili and Victor Yushchenko might make a proposal over the conflict between Moldova and its breakaway region Transdnestria at the summit.
“As of yet, neither the Ukrainian leadership nor that of Georgia has advanced their theses in this respect. At the summit — along with the countries that are willing to give us a helping hand – we will have the opportunity to examine these proposals,” Moldovan Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan told RFE/RL on April 21.
He also said that interest towards GUAM is increasing in the region. “Other countries from the region, politicians from these countries, manifest at present a growing interest for this organization. These accounts [sic] for the fact that the presidents of Romania, Lithuania, and Poland, along with the U.S. State Department’s representative for the region, Steven Mann, have agreed to participate in the summit [of GUAM member states’ leaders] in Chisinau [on April 22],” Andrei Stratan said.
An invitation to other eastern European states, which have recently joined the Euro-Atlantic structures, to participate in the GUAM summit is an attempt by Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova, mainly, to further demonstrate their aspirations towards Europe.
President Saakashvili, who considers GUAM a vehicle for EU integration, said after talks with visiting Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis on April 9 in Tbilisi that the “Baltic-Black Sea rim of cooperation and stability has become a reality.”
“We spoke about it during [my] visit to Lithuania [last October] with [Lithuanian] President [Valdas] Adamkus, about this Baltic-Black Sea rim. And after those events in Ukraine [the Orange Revolution, [Ukrainian] President [Victor] Yushchenko and I stated that a new type of cooperation is being established between Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic states and those countries which aspire for NATO and EU membership,” Mikheil Saakashvili told reporters.
Originally the GUAM was formed by Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova in 1997 with the support of the United States and was perceived as an alternative to the Russian dominated Commonwealth of Independent States. Uzbekistan officially joined the coalition in 1999 and the organization was renamed into GUUAM.
But the coalition failed to transform into a meaningful vehicle of regional cooperation and Uzbekistan officially announced in 2002 that it would pull out from the organization. Following this announcement, Uzbekistan started to ignore all summits and working meetings that were held in frames of GUUAM. As anticipated, the Uzbekistani President Islam Karimov refused to participate in the Chisinau summit as well. Nevertheless the name of the coalition has never been changed and officially it is still known as GUUAM. Reportedly, the issue of renaming of the organization will also be discussed at Chisinau summit.
Moldova also began ignoring GUUAM after President Vladimir Voronin came into office from the Communist party and tried to mend ties with Russia. But attempts to revitalize the coalition became vivid after the Orange Revolution in Ukraine last year and following a change of heart by President Voronin, in favor of European integration.