GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development
Encyclopedia
The GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development is a regional organization of four post-Soviet states: Georgia
, Ukraine
, Azerbaijan
, and Moldova
.
GUAM's charter was signed during a summit in Yalta
on June 6 to June 7, 2001 by the four current members and Uzbekistan
, which later withdrew. According to the former 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
. Moldova's 2000 elections
were won by the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova who have realigned their foreign policy towards Europe shortly before the parliamentary election held in March 2005.
Given the existence of the Russia
n-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS
), in Russia GUAM is sometimes seen as a way of countering the Russian influence in the area, and as part of a strategy backed by the United States
. 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.
Cooperation between Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova started with the GUAM consultative forum, established on October 10, 1997, in Strasbourg
and named after the initial letters of each of those countries. In 1999, the organisation was renamed GUUAM due to the membership of Uzbekistan. A summit in Yalta
on June 6 to June 7, 2001, was accompanied by the signing of GUUAM's charter which formalized the organization. However in 2002, Uzbekistan announced that it 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 gave 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 its charter the grouping was generally considered to have stagnated: Among other things, the 2004 meeting in Yalta was only attended by two of the five leaders 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 attend, as did the president of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski
, who had been invited as an observer. The president of Romania
, Traian Băsescu
, and of Lithuania
, Valdas Adamkus
, both participated as observers, as did the US Department of State special representative for Eurasia
n 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. Ilham Aliyev
, the president of Azerbaijan, said after the summit: "Our organization is emerging as a powerful force, participating in resolving problems in the Caspian
-Black Sea
region" while the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko
, said that a new page had been written in the history of the organization.
From May 22 to May 23, 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. Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev was to be elected as the first secretary general of the organization. The other members said this was a remarkable step and development. The summit participants were also expected to adopt GUAM by-laws, a declaration and a communiqué.
On May 30, 2006 the Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced plans to establish GUAM peacekeeping forces.
On June 19, 2007, presidents of Lithuania, Poland and Romania joined the leaders of GUAM member states at the GUAM summit in Baku
, Azerbaijan. Participating at the summit were also the Vice-President of Bulgaria
, Vice-Speaker of Estonia
n parliament, 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.
, Abkhazia
, South Ossetia
(which remain under de facto Russian military control) and Nagorno-Karabakh
. Lastly the other three GUAM nations supported Ukraine's proposal to condemn the Holodomor
, the 1930s famine in Ukraine, as a genocide
.
Another of the issues associated with GUAM is competition between two proposed transportation corridors to better link Europe with Asia. Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran
have already been through rounds of negotiation on their plan, the North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC); neighbouring countries (formerly, but no longer with the understandable exception of Armenia
) have expressed enthusiasm as well. This corridor would travel along the border between Russia and the Baltic states
of the European Union
, then continue south through Ukraine. The United States would prefer the critical transportation corridor bypass both Russia and Iran. The plan proposed to GUAM by the United States crosses both the Black Sea
and the Caspian Sea
.
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, and Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
.
GUAM's charter was signed during a summit in Yalta
Yalta
Yalta is a city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea.The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black...
on June 6 to June 7, 2001 by the four current members and Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, which later withdrew. According to the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
the charter set objectives for cooperation, such as promoting democratic values, ensuring stable development, enhancing international and regional security and stepping up European integration
European integration
European integration is the process of industrial, political, legal, economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe...
. Moldova's 2000 elections
Parliament of the Republic of Moldova
The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova is a unicameral assembly with 101 seats. Its members are elected by popular vote every 4 years. The parliament then elects a president, who functions as the head of state...
were won by the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova who have realigned their foreign policy towards Europe shortly before the parliamentary election held in March 2005.
Given the existence of the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
), in Russia GUAM is sometimes seen as a way of countering the Russian influence in the area, and as part of a strategy backed by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. 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.
Members
- Current members:
-
Georgia (country) (1997) (G) -
Ukraine (1997) (U) -
Azerbaijan (1997) (A) -
Moldova (1997)(M)
-
- Former members:
-
Uzbekistan (1999; withdrawn 2005)
-
- Observers:
Organizational structure
GUAM is organized as follows:- An annual meeting occurs between the Presidents of GUAM member states in YaltaYaltaYalta is a city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea.The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black...
, Ukraine. This is considered the supreme body of the organization. - The executive body is the Council of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the GUAM states.
- The working body is the Committee of National Coordinators (CNC) consisting of one coordinator from each GUAM member state.
- The Headquarters of GUAM were opened on February 26, 2009 in KievKievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. - There are eight working groupWorking groupA working group is an interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers working on new research activities that would be difficult to develop under traditional funding mechanisms . The lifespan of the WG can last anywhere between a few months and several years...
s, for the following topics: power engineeringPower engineeringPower engineering, also called power systems engineering, is a subfield of engineering that deals with the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power as well as the electrical devices connected to such systems including generators, motors and transformers...
; transport; trade and economicsEconomicsEconomics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
; information scienceInformation science-Introduction:Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information...
and telecommunications; culture; science and education; tourismTourismTourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
; the struggle against terrorismTerrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, organized crimeOrganized crimeOrganized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
and dissemination of drugsIllegal drug tradeThe illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
.
History
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
and named after the initial letters of each of those countries. In 1999, the organisation was renamed GUUAM due to the membership of Uzbekistan. A summit in Yalta
Yalta
Yalta is a city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea.The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black...
on June 6 to June 7, 2001, was accompanied by the signing of GUUAM's charter which formalized the organization. However in 2002, Uzbekistan announced that it 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
Andijan massacre
The Andijan massacre occurred when Uzbek Interior Ministry and National Security Service troops fired into a crowd of protesters in Andijan, Uzbekistan on 13 May 2005. Estimates of those killed on 13 May range from between 187, the official count of the government, and 5,000 people, with most...
, Uzbekistan finally gave 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 its charter the grouping was generally considered to have stagnated: Among other things, the 2004 meeting in Yalta was only attended by two of the five leaders 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
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
, Moldova, on April 22, 2005. The president of Uzbekistan
President of Uzbekistan
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan is the Head of State and executive authority in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The office of President was established in 1991 replacing the position of First secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan that has existed since 1925 while the country was known...
, Islam Karimov failed to attend, as did the president of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Aleksander Kwasniewski
Aleksander Kwaśniewski is a Polish politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the communist government in the 1980s...
, who had been invited as an observer. The president of Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Traian Băsescu
Traian Basescu
Traian Băsescu is the current President of Romania. After serving as the mayor of Bucharest from June 2000 until December 2004, he was elected president in the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2004 and inaugurated on December 20, 2004...
, and of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Valdas Adamkus
Valdas Adamkus
Valdas Adamkus was President of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009.In Lithuania, the President's tenure lasts for five years; Adamkus' first term in office began on February 26, 1998 and ended on February 28, 2003, following his defeat by Rolandas Paksas in the next...
, both participated as observers, as did the US Department of State special representative for Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
n conflicts, Steven Mann, and the OSCE
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections...
Secretary General Ján Kubiš
Ján Kubiš
Ján Kubiš is the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia from July 2006 until January 2009....
. The Russian ambassador in Chişinău criticized the fact that Russia was not invited to attend. Ilham Aliyev
Ilham Aliyev
Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev is the President of Azerbaijan since 2003. He also functions as the Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party and the head of the National Olympic Committee...
, the president of Azerbaijan, said after the summit: "Our organization is emerging as a powerful force, participating in resolving problems in the Caspian
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
-Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
region" while the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
, said that a new page had been written in the history of the organization.
From May 22 to May 23, 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. Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev was to be elected as the first secretary general of the organization. The other members said this was a remarkable step and development. The summit participants were also expected to adopt GUAM by-laws, a declaration and a communiqué.
On May 30, 2006 the Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced plans to establish GUAM peacekeeping forces.
On June 19, 2007, presidents of Lithuania, Poland and Romania joined the leaders of GUAM member states at the GUAM summit in Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
, Azerbaijan. Participating at the summit were also the Vice-President of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Vice-Speaker of Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
n parliament, Minister of Economy of Latvia, and the high-level representatives of the United States, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, OSCE, the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC
Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
On 25 June 1992, the Heads of State and Government of eleven countries signed in Istanbul the Summit Declaration and the Bosporus Statement giving birth to the Black Sea Economic Cooperation ...
), UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
, and heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Azerbaijan.
Issues
On April 21, 2005, the GUAM countries formed a common front on several issues in the CIS Foreign Ministers Council that was held at that time in Moscow. Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova lodged complaints against restriction imposed by Russia against some of their national products. At the same time, the four GUAM countries made a proposal to discuss the "frozen conflicts" of TransnistriaTransnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
, Abkhazia
Abkhazia
Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...
, South Ossetia
South Ossetia
South Ossetia or Tskhinvali Region is a disputed region and partly recognized state in the South Caucasus, located in the territory of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic....
(which remain under de facto Russian military control) and Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
. Lastly the other three GUAM nations supported Ukraine's proposal to condemn the Holodomor
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
, the 1930s famine in Ukraine, as a genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
.
Another of the issues associated with GUAM is competition between two proposed transportation corridors to better link Europe with Asia. Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
have already been through rounds of negotiation on their plan, the North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC); neighbouring countries (formerly, but no longer with the understandable exception of Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
) have expressed enthusiasm as well. This corridor would travel along the border between Russia and the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, then continue south through Ukraine. The United States would prefer the critical transportation corridor bypass both Russia and Iran. The plan proposed to GUAM by the United States crosses both the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
and the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
.