GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development

Overview

GUAM’s charter was signed during a summit in Yalta on June 7, 2001 by the current members and Uzbekistan , which later withdrew. According to the training of the Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko the charter set objectives for cooperation, such as promoting democratic values, ensuring stable development, enhancing international and regional security and stepping up European integration . ^[3] Moldova ’s 2000 elections were won by the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova who subsequently realigned their foreign policy towards Europe shortly before the election in March 2005.

In June 2007, GUAM nations agreed to form a 500-staff joint peacekeeping force to battle separatism. ^[4]

Given the existence of the Russian -led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), GUAM Sometimes is seen in Russia as a way of countering the Russian influences in the area and have hand of a strategy backed by the United States . ^[5] However, GUAM leaders repeatedly and officially dismiss such claims and declare their strong willingness to develop close friendly relations with Russia. Moreover, Azerbaijan, the group’s main energy power, has managed to avoid any conflicts with Russia in recent years.

In 2014, the group moved to use English instead of Russian as a working language at its meetings. ^[6]

Members

Current

•  Georgia (1997) („G“)
•  Ukraine (1997) („U“)
•  Azerbaijan (1997) („A“)
•  Moldova (1997) („M“)

Form

•  Uzbekistan (joined 1999, withdrew 2005)

Observers

•  turkey
•  latvia

Organizational structure

• Council of heads of states (Summit)
  • Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs
  • Council of National Coordinators
  • Council of Permanent Representatives
• Parliamentary Assembly
• Business Council
• Secretariat
• There are seven working groups and a ruling committee and an economic forum that is responsible for the Summit and Secretariat:
  • transport;
  • trade and economics ;
  • power engineering ;
  • information science and telecommunications ;
  • tourism ;
  • culture, science and education;
  • the fight against terrorism , organized crime and dissemination of drugs ;
    • Virtual Law Enforcement Center (GUAM – USA)
  • Ruling Committee on Cooperation in Trade and Transportation.
    • Project on Cooperation in Trade and Transportation (GUAM – USA)
• Cooperation with other countries and international organizations, particularly
  • GUAM – USA
    • Virtual law enforcement center
    • Project on cooperation in trade and transportation
  • GUAM – Japan
  • GUAM – Poland
  • GUAM – Czech Republic
  • United Nations
  • OSCE
  • others

History

Cooperation between Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova started with the GUAM Consultative Forum, established on 10 October 1997, in Strasbourg and named after the initial letters of each of those countries. In 1999, the organization adopted the GUUAM name due to the membership of Uzbekistan. A summit in Yalta on 6 to 7 June 2001, is accompanied by the signing of GUUAM’s charter which formalized the organization. However, in 2002, Uzbekistan announced that it was planned to withdraw from the organization, and following this announcement started to ignore GUUAM summits and meetings. On May 24, 2005, shortly after the Andijan massacre, Uzbekistan finally granted an official notice of withdrawal from the organization to the Moldovan presidency, thus changing the group’s name back to GUAM.

In the years following the signing of the chartering of the grouping of the ^{[ by whom? ]} to have stagnated: for example, only two of the five leaders attended the 2004 meeting in Yalta, while the GUUAM official website still showed the old Georgian flag and listed Uzbekistan as a member.

A summit of GUUAM took place in Chişinău , Moldova, on April 22, 2005. The president of Uzbekistan , Islam Karimov failed to wait, as did the president of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, who had been invited to observe. The presidents of Romania , Traian Băsescu , and of Lithuania , Valdas Adamkus , both, participated as Observers, as Did the US Department of Statespecial representative for Eurasian conflicts Steven Mann, and the OSCE Secretary General Ján Kubiš. The Russian ambassador in Chişinău criticized the fact that Russia was not invited to attend. ^[7] Ilham Aliyev , President of Azerbaijan, said after the summit: „Our organization is emerging as a powerful force, participating in resolving problems in the Caspian – Black Searegion“ while Viktor Yushchenko , the President of Ukraine , said that new page had been written in the history of the organization. ^[8]

From 22 to 23 May 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. ^[9] The other members said this was a remarkable step and development. The summit participants were also expected to adopt the GUAM by-laws, statement and release.

On May 30, 2006 Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced plans to establish GUAM peacekeeping forces. ^[10]

On 19 June 2007, Presidents of Lithuania, Poland and Romania joined the GUAM members at GUAM summit in Baku , Azerbaijan. ^[11] Also participating at the summit were the Vice-President of Bulgaria , the Vice-Speaker of the Estonian Parliament, the Minister of Economy of Latvia, and the high-level representatives of the United States, Japan , OSCE, the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation ( BSEC ), UNESCO , and heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Azerbaijan. ^[12]

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on December 5, 2014 that at a session in Basel, Switzerland, he proposed that participants spoke English instead of Russian, which was used in the Soviet Union. He said that the other representatives agreed. ^[13]

Issues

On 21 April 2005, the GUAM was formed in the CIS Foreign Ministers Council that was held at that time in Moscow. Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova lodged complaints against restrictions imposed by Russia on some of their national products. At the same time, the furnace of the Transnistria , Abkhazia , South Ossetia(in which the separatist forces are Russian-supported) and Nagorno-Karabakh (sometimes these regions are referred to by the acronym TAKO ^[14] ). Lastly the other three GUAM nations supported Ukraine’s proposal to condemn the Holodomor , the 1930s famine in Ukraine, as agenocide . ^[15]

Another of the issues associated with GUAM is competing with Europe. Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran have already been through rounds of negotiation on their plan, the North-South Transportation Corridor ( INSTC ); Neighboring countries (formerly, but no longer with the exception of Armenia ) have expressed enthusiasm as well. This corridor would be between the Baltic States and the European Union , then continue south through Ukraine.

Secretary General

• 2007 – train Valeriy Chechelashvili
• 2016 – present Altai Efendiev

See also

References