Translated material
In conversational genre
Chisinau does not expect help from GUAM
Yesterday, the summit of GUAM, an organization uniting Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, ended in Baku. The Baku summit culminated in many declarative statements indicating, at best, that the structure established ten years ago under the patronage of the United States continues to exist. A typical confirmation of this was the message from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the summit participants. It “expresses gratitude (! - Ed. ) to the government of Ukraine, which achieved certain successes during its chairmanship in GUAM.” The chief of the American State Department also “expresses hope that these successes will continue during Azerbaijan’s chairmanship.”However, such a frank declaration that the GUAM member countries are clients of Washington has not bothered anyone for a long time. For example, Georgian expert Georgi Khukhashvili emphasized yesterday that “the support of the United States and the European Union can become a guarantee of the activity and effectiveness of economic relations within the framework of GUAM.” Trend agency quotes Mr. Khukhashvili, who believes that “within GUAM there are more prospects for achieving economic rapprochement of member countries than within the CIS,” since “Russia cannot torpedo or slow down economic contacts within GUAM and is looking at it with some caution, but cannot exert any political or economic leverage.”
However, such statements are rather an attempt to pass off wishful thinking as reality. Unlike previous summits of the organization, the full gathering of GUAM leaders in Baku did not work out - the President of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, was absent. And Moscow has a direct connection to this front. According to Vremya Novostei, information is confirmed that the Moldovan leader will arrive in the Russian capital on a working visit on Friday, June 22.
It is more than likely that after his meeting with Vladimir Putin, a fundamental shift in the peaceful resolution of the conflict in Transnistria will be announced. And although the official reason for the Moldovan President’s refusal to take part in the Baku summit was the need for his trip to Brussels, the true rationale for this step is obvious: Vladimir Voronin could not afford to risk participating almost simultaneously - in Baku and Moscow - in pursuit of not even two, but one hare, which is the Transnistrian settlement for Chisinau. The Kremlin would hardly welcome such hunting omnivorousness...
An eloquent confirmation of this was the speech at the summit in Baku by Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev, who represented his country in the absence of the president. Unlike the leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine, who spoke a lot about the problem of unresolved conflicts on the territory of the GUAM member countries, including Moldova, Mr. Tarlev did not say a single word about “his” conflict in Transnistria.
Baku could not help but pay attention to this. Moreover, the host of the summit, Ilham Aliyev, as always, spoke a lot and very emotionally on this topic. “Illegally operating separatist regimes are pursuing a policy of armed aggression and ethnic cleansing against our countries, and continue to keep our lands under occupation,” the President of Azerbaijan said yesterday. “We must, by joining forces, explain to the whole world the criminal essence of the separatist regimes.” Ilham Aliyev said that he was “pleased that GUAM takes a unified position on this issue.”
Mikheil Saakashvili spoke about “solidarity on the issue of conflict territories.” Viktor Yushchenko talked about conflicts as “a burden for us.” Nevertheless, for him it was rather a tribute of politeness to the owners and an expression of solidarity with them. The main interest in GUAM for the Ukrainian president is Azerbaijani oil, which it is desirable to begin delivering as soon as possible to Ukraine and through its territory further to Poland via the Odessa-Brody-Gdansk oil pipeline. At a press conference, Ilham Aliyev tried to dispel fears that Azerbaijan would not have enough oil to fill the Odessa-Brody pipeline. “We have enough resources for this,” Ilham Aliyev reassured. Answering a question about Kazakhstan’s participation in these supplies, he stated that Baku “is ready to provide its infrastructure to join the project of its friends on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.”
Minister of Industry and Energy of Azerbaijan Natig Aliyev said that the next meeting of the working group to prepare an intergovernmental agreement on filling the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline built in 2001 with oil will be held at the end of August in Tbilisi. And only then, the minister said, an energy summit of all interested countries should take place, at which they should agree on how they will participate in the implementation of the Odessa-Brody-Gdansk project.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski also spoke in Baku about energy security as the main pillar of Poland’s cooperation with GUAM. Moreover, he uttered words that were, to a certain extent, avoided by other participants in the summit. Kaczynski said that GUAM is “transforming from an economic organization into a political bloc.” Noting that “GUAM countries are closely monitoring the prospects for cooperation with NATO,” and Warsaw has “considerable experience in this matter,” the Polish president promised assistance in this regard” to GUAM members.
Another high-ranking guest, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, gave a kind farewell to the summit participants, promising to promote closer cooperation between GUAM and the EU. “If you work through reforms, the problems facing you will soon be solved,” Mr. Adamkus reassured Guamanians, assuring them that “GUAM’s success is the success of Lithuania.” As for another idea that has been discussed within GUAM for as long as filling the Odessa-Brody pipeline with oil - the creation of a GUAM peacekeeping battalion - no progress has been made on this issue.