UZBEKISTAN SUSPENDS EURASEC MEMBERSHIP, MOSCOW UNRUFFLED

RIA Novosti
12:49 | 12/ 11/ 2008

MOSCOW, November 12 (RIA Novosti) – Uzbekistan has officially announced
it is temporarily withdrawing from the Eurasian Economic Community
(Eurasec), the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Eurasec, established in 2000, is an international economic
organization comprising Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and
Tajikistan. Three other former Soviet republics, Armenia, Moldova,
and Ukraine have observer status.

"This is the sovereign right of any member state," the ministry said.

A Russian business daily said earlier on Wednesday that the reasons
for the move were still unknown. However, the announcement came
days after the EU lifted sanctions imposed on the republic in 2005,
following the violent suppression of an uprising in the country that
came to be known as the Andizhan massacre.

"Tashkent announced in mid-October that it was putting its membership
on hold. They did not explain the reasons to us, but the Uzbek
leadership has of late been often critical of Eurasec’s performance,
considering it an ineffective organization," Kommersant quoted an
unidentified Russian Foreign Ministry official as saying.

He added that Uzbekistan was "extremely envious" of a customs union
created by Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus within the Eurasec framework.