UzReport.com - 06.14.02

 

 

 

 

UzReport.com

Uzbekistan Leaves GUUAM Organization of Former Soviet Bloc

TASHKENT (AP) - Uzbekistan has decided to pull out of a strategic alliance of five former Soviet republics, a Foreign Ministry official said Thursday, underlining the Central Asian nation's international confidence after becoming a prominent partner in the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan formally notified embassies Wednesday of the other members of the group known as GUUAM — the first letters of member countries, which also include Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova — that it was leaving the organization, Uzbek Deputy Foreign Minister Sadyk Safayev said. It also sent a note about its decision to the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, which holds the group's rotating chairmanship.

GUUAM was set up in 1997 as a political, economic and strategic alliance designed to strengthen the independence and sovereignty of its members, who sought mechanisms of interaction outside Russian influence. Uzbekistan joined the group in 1999.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry note said Tashkent was pulling out because it saw no progress on the tasks set by the organization. Safayev said Uzbekistan believed bilateral contacts would be more effective in relations with the GUUAM members.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Uzbek President Islam Karimov has opposed any political or military blocs on post-Soviet territory. In 1999, Uzbekistan left the CIS Collective Security Treaty.

However, Tashkent was a late-joining member to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a grouping that includes Russia, China and three other former Soviet Central Asian republics.

Uzbekistan's relations with the West have considerably improved since last fall when it supported the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign in neighboring Afghanistan, making available its airspace and bases to coalition forces.