GUUAM Group Becomes Formal International OrganizationThe heads of five former Soviet republics ended their meeting in Yalta, southern Ukraine, on Thursday with the signing of a series of documents, turning the informal GUUAM group into an international organization.The presidents of the member countries of the group, comprising Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova, signed the organization's charter, a communique and a consular convention, but rejected an agreement on free trade due to divergence on this issue, said local media reports. The leaders expressed the readiness to enhance overall mutual cooperation in areas such as economy, trade, science, environment, transportation, energy, telecommunications and investment, according to the communique of the summit. Under the document, the next GUUAM summit meeting will be held in 2002, also in Yalta. Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said at a press conference held after the summit that the organization aims at strengthening regional economic cooperation and developing the European-Asian transportation corridor. "We have no intention of establishing a political-military organization against any other countries, including Russia," said Kuchma, emphasizing that Russia is all the countries' strategic partner. Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze stressed that the GUUAM is not a military organization and will never be opposed to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Moldovan leader Vladimir Voronin said his country is interested in economic cooperation within the framework of the GUUAM, but warned that he doesn't want to see any contradiction between the GUUAM and the CIS. The GUUAM group was established in 1997 as an informal economic organization. |
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