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Saturday, Apr 23, 2005

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International

GUUAM to challenge Russia

Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: A regional group of former Soviet states, GUUAM, met in Chisinau, Moldova, to challenge Russia's domination of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

The leaders of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijan met after a break of two years to breathe new life into their dormant grouping set up in 1999 with strong support from the U.S. to balance Russia's leading role in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The Presidents of Romania, Traian Basescu, and Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, attended the one-day summit as observers. Russia was not invited, though representatives of the United States, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria were present at the meeting. Uzbekistan, which suspended its membership of GUUAM in 2002, refused to re-join the group.

Joint declaration

In a joint declaration, the GUUAM leaders called for pooling efforts to speed up the integration of their countries into Europe.

Georgia's President, Mikhail Saakashvili, predicted further "velvet revolutions" in ex-Soviet republics and called for "democratic changes" in Belarus, the next target for the U.S.-led "liberty crusade" in the former Soviet Union.

On Thursday the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, described Belarus ran "the last true dictatorship in the center of Europe."

The GUUAM summit underscored a deep split in the post-Soviet CIS.

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