Georgia and Moldova revive GUAM and invite Belarus, Media

17.08.2010 12:32
Архив Редакция

Presidents of Georgia and Moldova agreed to intensify efforts to revive GUAM. During the visit of the Acting President of Moldova Mihai Ghimpu in Georgia, which ended on August 16, no documentats were signed. However, the two heads of state during a personal meeting agreed to breathe new life into the organization that has not the best of times in recent years (the last time the presidents of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova met in summer 2007).

According to the Kommersant newspaper, at the meeting Ghimpu and Saakashvili discussed the idea of a possible invitation to the GUAM Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. However the Georgian Foreign Ministry have declined to discuss the issue, saying that it is «too sensitive». 
In turn, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Grigol Vashadze said that GUAM members «haven’t ever stopped to work on finding new ways to develop the community.» «The organization is still alive. There is a concern of all countries to implement economic, energy and transport projects. They are the creation of the southern transport corridor, transit through Georgia Azerbaijan’s energy and tourism projects,» the head of Georgian diplomacy said. 
According to him, the heads of the foreign ministers of the Quartet will meet in the autumn at the UN General Assembly in New York, to determine the date of GUAM summit and its agenda, Korrespondent.net reports. 
At the same time, Russia has not yet seen the prerequisites for the resumption of GUAM. And first of all because of this organization, in fact, had Ukraine, led by Viktor Yanukovych, who has moved closer to Moscow and did not show the desire to provide political support for the alliance. 
«As far as we know, Ukraine is not planning to withdraw from GUAM, but our Kiev colleagues made it clear: for them the priority is the economy, not politics. And we do not see large economic projects within GUAM,» the media quote the source in the Russian MFA. 
Obviously, Mihai Ghimpu and Mikheil Saakashvili also consider that Ukraine is a «weak link» of GUAM, and therefore they do not mind to try to replace it with Belarus, which has conflicts with Russia, Kommersant summarizes. 
In late April, the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych said that he intends in the near future to raise the question of whether Ukraine’s membership in the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development is reasonable.

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