Other attributes
The Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM) is a regional organization in the post-Soviet area, created in 1997 (the Charter was signed in 2001, the Charter in 2006) by Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan (from 1999 to 2005 the organization also included Uzbekistan).
The name of the organization was formed from the first letters of the names of its member countries. Before Uzbekistan withdrew from the organization, it was called GUUAM.
Background
Two options for the further development of the CIS emerged in the mid-1990s. The first was the continuation of attempts to preserve integration within the whole Commonwealth, which implied the adoption of numerous documents, far from always binding, and the holding of protocol and informal meetings. The second was the development of practical sub-regional cooperation in the economic and/or military-political sphere, involving groups of states with truly common interests and striving to deepen integration.
GUAM was declared as one of such associations. From the very beginning GUAM was characterized by its orientation towards European and international structures. The initiators of the union acted outside the CIS. Opinions were voiced that the immediate goal of the union was to ease the economic, mostly energy dependence of the countries it included on Russia and develop the transit of energy carriers along the route Asia (Caspian Sea) - the Caucasus - Europe, bypassing Russia.
The political reasons included the desire to counter Russia's intentions to revise the flank limitations of conventional armed forces in Europe and fears that it could legitimize the presence of Russian military contingents in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine regardless of their consent. GUAM's political orientation became even more prominent after Georgia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan withdrew from the CSTO in 1999.
Postage stamp of Ukraine dedicated to the GUAM Summit 2006. 22-23 May 2006. Kiev, 2006 (Michel 791)
History
Euler diagram showing the ratio of supranational organizations in the former Soviet Union
The beginning of cooperation between Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova in the framework of GUAM was laid at the meeting of the presidents of the respective countries on 10 October 1997 in Strasbourg during the Council of Europe summit That's when the official communiqué on recognition of the GUAM alliance with the status of "consultative forum" was adopted. In April 1999 Uzbekistan joined the forum. The event was announced during the NATO anniversary summit in Washington, D.C., during which the GUUAM heads of state adopted the Washington Declaration, which declared the goal of integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures[3]. In September 2000 during the UN Millennium Summit a memorandum regulating the objectives and activities of GUAM was also adopted. On July 6-7, 2001 the GUUAM Summit was held in the city of Yalta in Ukraine, where the heads of the participating states signed the Organization's Charter. As a result, the consultative forum received the status of an international regional organization. The Charter contained not only GUUAM's goals, but also specified its organizational structures.
Decline and withdrawal of Uzbekistan
However, as time showed, the organization was not sustainable: in 2002 Uzbekistan declared its intention to leave GUAM, and then started to ignore its activities. President Islam Karimov officially announced his country's withdrawal only in May 2005. The formal reason for Uzbekistan's withdrawal was "a significant change in the original goals and objectives of the organization. According to Karimov's letter, Uzbekistan was not satisfied with "the organization's focus on resolving frozen conflicts, forming joint armed blocs and revising existing security systems. The Uzbek authorities explained that they are not able to participate actively in these processes due to "their geographical position".
Headquarter
Resumption of activity
GUAM has been practically inactive for several years. For example, only two of the five leaders participated in the meeting of the organization in Yalta (2004). Its revitalization process started after the Orange revolution in Ukraine in February - March 2005, at the level of bilateral meetings between the leaders of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. In early March, on the eve of the parliamentary elections in Moldova, Mikhail Saakashvili visited Chisinau, and before that Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin came to Kiev, where he signed a joint statement on Ukrainian-Moldovan cooperation.
On the 22nd of April 2005 the summit of GUAM was held in Kishinev. The states-members of GUAM, as the president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko said, "don't perceive themselves as fragments of the USSR any more" and intend to become the locomotive of "the third wave of democratic revolutions" in the area of the former Union. President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov refused to attend the summit. Presidents Traian Basescu of Romania and Valdas Adamkus of Lithuania, OSCE chairman Jan Kubiš and U.S. special negotiator for Nagorno-Karabakh and conflicts in Eurasia Stephen Mann attended the summit as observers. Two documents were signed at the summit: declarations "In the Name of Democracy, Stability and Development" and a joint statement "Creating Democracy from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. On the threshold of presidential elections in Belarus, participants of the summit declared their intention to "develop democracy" in this country. President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili stated that "there is no democracy and freedom" in Belarus and underlined that Belarusian people "have the right for free choice" and European development. President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus made a harsh statement: "President Lukashenko is moving faster and faster to autocracy and self-isolation of both the state and the Belarusian people. Russia, which was not invited to the summit, reacted sharply to Saakashvili's statement. "Let Saakashvili not imagine himself as a messiah," Russian Ambassador to Moldova Nikolai Ryabov said, advising Saakashvili to "leave Belarus alone" and deal with numerous problems in his country.
In December 2005, the GUAM countries presented a united front at the OSCE Ministerial Council in Ljubljana, Slovenia. On the eve of the OSCE forum, Moldova took over the presidency of GUAM and it was Moldova, which was most interested in Russia's implementation of the "Istanbul agreements" (on the withdrawal of troops from Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria) that spoke at the OSCE meeting on behalf of GUAM. Borys Tarasyuk, head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, declared that GUAM countries would continue working together since the heads of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldavia would formalize GUAM as a full-fledged international regional organization in December 2005. GUAM Secretariat will be located in Kiev.
