Moldova foreign min announces Uzbekistan withdrawal from GUUAM

11.05.2005, 21.59

CHISINAU, May 11 (Itar-Tass) – After sending a statement about its
quitting the GUUAM Group (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia and
Moldova), Uzbekistan has automatically discontinued its membership in
that organization. Tass learned this from the Moldovan Ministry for
Foreign Affairs and European Integration. After the GUUAM summit in
Chisinau, Moldova assumed the chairmanship of the organization.

`Under the GUUAM regulations, Moldova, chairing the organization, must
inform the leaders of Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan of Uzbekistan’s
decision,’ the ministry noted.

Uzbekistan’s President lslam Karimov sent the message about the
withdrawal of his country from GUUAM to Moldova’s president Vladimir
Voronin on May 3. In the letter this decision is explained by the fact
that `because of its geographic position Uzbekistan sees no ways for the
realization of its interests in the areas of economy and security in the
framework of the new initiatives and projects announced by GUUAM.’

Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova formed GUAM on October 10, 1997
at the summit of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. In April 1999, at
the meeting of GUAM states in Washington, during the celebration of the
50th anniversary of NATO, Uzbekistan was admitted into the organization,
and it was named GUUAM. In June 2002 Uzbekistan stated that it remains
within GUUAM as an observer and reserves the right not to participate in
some functions.

The Uzbek leaders have stayed away from the GUUAM summit in Chisinau in
connection with the fact that, in Tashkent’s opinion, GUUAM has turned
into a `political organization.’ Thus, Georgian president Mikhail
Saakashvili made a call at the Chisinau summit for `a third wave of
revolutions’ in the post-Soviet space.