ROMANIA NEVER SAW RUSSIA AT THE SUMMIT
by Vladimir Soloviov
Translated by A. Ignatkin

Source: Kommersant, June 6, 2006, p. 10
Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
June 6, 2006 Tuesday

Black Sea Forum For Dialog and Partnership summit held in Romania;
A summit of the Black Sea Forum For Dialog and Partnership took place
in Bucharest yesterday. The national leaders of Romania, Armenia, and
four GUAM countries met to discuss common problems. Russia pointedly
ignored an invitation to the summit.

The Black Sea Forum For Dialog and Partnership summit was organized
on Romania’s initiative. Official Bucharest went to great pains to
prepare everything. Who would be representing Russia at the forum:
that was the main point of suspense until yesterday. Romanian President
Trayan Besesku met with journalists from the participating countries
(those he assumed would participate) to speak about the importance
of the forum.

He apparently wanted the Kremlin to know how strongly Romania wanted
to see Russia as a participant. Besesku said he had sent an invitation
to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin long ago. “It would be all
right even if Russia is represented by someone else,” Besesku told
journalists. “As long as its representatives are here among us. The
regional structures of which Russia is not a member stand to lose a
great deal.”

No wonder the Romanian leader was so persistent in inviting Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry had declared several months ago that
the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation is doing just
fine with the problems of the region and that there was no need for
a parallel structure. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was particularly
critical of the forum initiative. “We are fairly skeptical about the
abstract forums with an unclear agenda undertaking to encompass the
Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and Baltic Sea on the basis of some unnatural
criteria that have nothing to do with what is really important,” he
said. To cut a long story short, Moscow assigned Russian Ambassador
in Bucharest Alexander Tolkach to the forum.

The presidents of the GUAM countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan,
Moldova) and their Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian went to
the capital of Romania. Turkey sent a state minister, Bulgaria its
foreign minister.

As soon as they met, the presidents began talking of their own
problems. Moldovan leader Vladimir Voronin recalled the unresolved
conflict with Tiraspol and demanded that the forum’s communique should
include a provision on separatism. Jack Crouch, National Security
Advisor to the US President, reassured Voronin that official Washington
supports the territorial integrity of Moldova and withdrawal of the
Russian troops from its territory.

President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine proposed an energy dialogue
covering the three seas (Black, Caspian, and Baltic) as a means
of boosting regional energy security. President Ilham Aliyev of
Azerbaijan and President Robert Kocharian of Armenia discussed the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict the day before the forum.

Independent Romanian observers are ironic on the subject of the whole
undertaking. Their comments brand the forum as “Romanian mini-vacation”
for GUAM leaders. Many of them maintain that such forums are just a
waste of time without Russia.