GUAM Leaders Gather in Baku

Ukrainian Leader Hopes to See Progress on Joint Peacekeeping Unit

The presidents of Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan and the prime minister of Moldova will gather in Baku on June 18-19 at a summit of a grouping of these four countries known as GUAM.

Initially an informal grouping, GUAM morphed into the more structured Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (ODED), with headquarters in Kiev, last year. For most observers, and even participants, however, the organisation still goes by the old name. Former Georgian First Deputy Foreign Minister Valeri Chechelashvili is the current secretary general.

GUAM leaders will be joined by the presidents of Lithuania and Poland, Valdas Adamkus and Lech Kaczy?ski, respectively, at the summit in Baku.

Representatives from international organizations, including the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and NATO have been invited to the summit, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin is absent because of his visit to Brussels where he plans talks with EU and NATO leadership, the News Moldova news agency reported.

The summit is expected to approve GUAM?s budget and Azerbaijan?s presidency program for 2007-2008. Ukraine held the organization?s rotating presidency in 2006.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said that a total of ten documents, including a memorandum on cooperation and assistance between the GUAM member states on nuclear and radiation security issues would be signed at the summit.

Meetings in within the GUAM-U.S. and GUAM-Japan formats are also planned on the sideline of the summit.

In an interview with the Azerbaijani news agency, Trend, ahead of the summit, Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko outlined the priorities for the meeting. He said economic, trade, energy and security issues would top the agenda.

He said that the meeting would follow up on discussions of energy cooperation which were the focus of an earlier Krakow energy summit, at which the possibilities of transporting hydrocarbons from the Caspian region to Europe via the Caucasus and Ukraine were explored.

?The integration of the markets of these four countries through a free trade regime is yet another important issue,? Yushchenko said.

He said that experts were currently working to harmonize bilateral trade agreements which had already been signed between the member states.

Yushchenko said that the establishment of a joint peacekeeping unit by GUAM member states was also ?an interesting issue to discuss.?

?Discussion on this issue is gaining momentum and I think that the Baku summit will help us to make progress on this issue,? Yushchenko said in an interview with the Trend news agency.

He, however, cautioned that ?no one plans to use? this potential joint peacekeeping unit ?without the approval of respective countries? parliaments, or without the mandate of the UN Security Council, or the OSCE.?

Yushchenko made it clear that more effective peacekeeping tools were needed in conflicts in the post-Soviet space, in order to create ?more confidence? among the parties involved.

?A new regime of confidence and new tools are needed for the resolution of these conflicts and we should find measures which have not been used before,? Yushchenko said.

Yushchenko’s comments have been seen as a cautious backing of Tbilisi?s position on the replacement of Russian-led peacekeeping troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia with, as it puts it, ?unbiased? international forces.

President Yushchenko also said that coordination of GUAM member states’ foreign policy would also be discussed during the summit in Baku.

Originally, 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 GUUAM. Uzbekistan, however, quit the grouping three years later.

For years the coalition failed to transform into a meaningful vehicle of regional cooperation. Last year?s GUAM summit in Kiev, however, gave the organisation new impetus and greater depth. As well as renaming itself as the ODED and creating more formal structures, the re-invigorated organization defined major policy objectives.

The promotion of democracy, peace and security, and integration into Euro-Atlantic structures have since then become the new regional organization’s main priority areas.

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