GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- GUAM redirects here. See Guam for the Pacific island territory.
GUAM (Azerbaijani language: GUAM, Ukrainian language: ГУАМ, Geo.: სუამი) is a regional organization of four CIS states: Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. The group was created as a way of countering the influence of Russia in the area, and it has received backing and encouragement from the United States. Though at one point it was generally considered to have stagnated, recent developments have caused speculation on the possible revival of the organization.
In 1999, the organisation was renamed GUUAM due to the membership of Uzbekistan, which however withdrew from the organisation in May 5, 2005, causing the restoration of the original name.
In May 22-23, 2006 Ukraine and Azerbaijan announced plans to further increase the GUAM member relations by renaming the organization GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development and establishing its headquarters in the Ukrainian capital [1]. Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev will be elected as the first secretary general of the organization. The other members said this was a remarkable step and development. The summit participants are also expected to adopt GUAM by-laws, a declaration and a communiqué. [2]
On May 30, 2006 the Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced plans to establish GUAM peacekeeping forces [3].
Contents |
[edit] History
Cooperation between Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova started with the GUAM consultative forum, established on October 10, 1997, in Strasbourg and named after the initial letters of each of those countries. In April 1999, Uzbekistan also joined, changing the name of the grouping temporarily to GUUAM.
A summit in Yalta on 6-7 June, 2001, was accompanied by the signing of GUUAM's charter, which formalized the organization.
In 2002, Uzbekistan however announced that it planned to withdraw from the organization, and following this announcement started to ignore GUUAM summits and meetings.
In the following years the grouping was generally considered to have stagnated: Among other things, the 2004 meeting in Yalta was only attended by two of the five leaders while the GUUAM official website still showed the old Georgian flag and listed Uzbekistan as a member.
However the recent series of "color revolutions" in Georgia and Ukraine, as well as a perceived pro-Western and anti-Russian shift in the political agenda of the Moldovan Communist governing party, followed by increased cooperation and coordination between these three countries, has led many to speculate on the possible revival of GUUAM. [4]
The most recent summit of GUUAM took place in Chişinău, Moldova, on April 22, 2005. The president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov failed to attend, as did the president of Poland who had been invited as an observer. The president of Romania, Traian Băsescu, and of Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, both participated as observers, as did the US Department of State special representative for Eurasian conflicts, Steven Mann, and the OSCE Secretary General Jan Kubis. The Russian ambassador in Chişinău criticized the fact that Russia was not invited to attend. [5] Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, said after the summit: "Our organization is emerging as a powerful force, participating in resolving problems in the Caspian-Black Sea region" while the president of Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko, said that a new page had been written in the history of the organization. [6]
On May 24, 2005, shortly after the Andijan massacre, Uzbekistan finally gave an official notice of withdrawal from the organization to the Moldovan presidency, thus changing the group's name back to GUAM.
On April 21, the GUAM countries formed a common front on several issues in the CIS Foreign Ministers Council that was held at that time in Moscow. Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova lodged complaints against restriction imposed by Russia against some of their national products. At the same time, the four GUAM countries made a proposal to discuss the "frozen conflicts" of Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia (which remain under de facto Russian military control) and Nagorno-Karabakh. Lastly the other three GUAM nations alone supported Ukraine's proposal to condemn the Holodomor, the 1930s famine in Ukraine, as a genocide. [7]
[edit] Members
- Current members:
Azerbaijan (1997)
Georgia (1997)
Moldova (1997)
Ukraine (1997)
- Former members:
Uzbekistan (1999; withdrawn 2005)
[edit] Organizational structure
GUAM is organized as follows:
- An annual meeting occurs between the Presidents of GUAM member states in Yalta. This is considered the supreme body of the organization.
- The executive body is the Council of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the GUAM states.
- The working body is the Committee of National Coordinators (CNC) consisting of one coordinator from each GUAM member state.
- The Information Office of the GUAM is in Kyiv
- There are eight working groups, for the following topics: power engineering; transport; trade and economics; information science and telecommunications; culture; science and education; tourism; the struggle against terrorism, organized crime and dissemination of drugs.
[edit] Issues
One of the issues associated with GUAM is competition between two proposed transportation corridors to better link Europe with Asia. Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran have already been through rounds of negotiation on their plan, the North-South Transporation Corridor; neighbouring countries (with the understandable exception of Armenia) have expressed enthusiasm as well. This corridor would travel along the border between Russia and the Baltic states of the European Union, then continue south through Ukraine, The USA would prefer the critical transportation corridor bypass both Russia and Iran. The plan proposed to GUAM by the United States crosses both the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said at the summit that the new charter set objectives for cooperation, such as promoting democratic values, ensuring stable development, enhancing international and regional security and stepping up European integration. [8]
Critics point out that only Georgia and Ukraine have shown a deep commitment to democratic values. Moldova is still ruled by postcommunists who have realigned their foreign policy towards Europe shortly before the parliamentary election held in March of 2005 to avoid losing power and Azerbaijan is suffering from a "democracy deficit" similar to Uzbekistan and thus remains closely linked with Russia.
[edit] See also
- Post-Soviet states
- Commonwealth of Independent States
- Community of Democratic Choice
- Shanghai Cooperation Organization
- Community for Democracy and Human Rights
- Black Sea Forum
