Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure that I accepted the invitation to speak here, and that’s because of the following reasons. First, it is very good experience to be a part of an event, which is being so much supported by the Ukrainian community of the United States. It is an impressive gathering which shows that the support of Ukrainian-Americans is a considerable factor in ensuring that Ukraine copes with all difficulties on its path to mature statehood. Secondly, the issue itself is related to GUUAM and that I always welcome, trying not to miss any opportunity to speak on this topic.

Today my task is a very challenging one, yet very interesting. I, just like my distinguished co-panelists, will be trying to cover multi-faceted links existing between the United States and GUUAM, where, as you know, Ukraine is joined by Georgia, Uzbekistan, Moldova, and my country, Azerbaijan.

Dr. Brzezinski whose opinion I value immensely, has on more than one occasion observed that it is not easy to persuade the United States to engage in cooperation with individual foreign countries, unless this country is not Russia or China. The US is more accessible to groups of nations.

Such was the story of the GUUAM. This CFE-born group of four (at the moment of its establishment) was a product of close cooperation among delegations of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, which started during the talks on conventional arms and forces limitations in Vienna. It was a very interesting and controversial time, a time when interests of great powers often contradicted each other and combined with utter lack of clear vision and understanding of the post-Soviet states. These four nations, before even the group was formally established appeared together in a Senate 1997 resolution which demanded that their lawful interests be taken into account in the flank package.

In 1997 during the first Summit in Strasbourg the Presidents of the four nations have made, in their Declaration, a precise definition of the group’s objectives, which remain unchanged now. They emphasized how important it is to develop the interaction “for the sake of a stable and secure Europe guided by the principles of respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of state frontiers, mutual respect, cooperation, democracy, supremacy of law and respect for human rights”.

In 1999, at the NATO-50 Summit in Washington Uzbekistan joined the group and GUUAM’s nature started being perceived by the international community, and, specifically by the U.S., as something wider than merely a group of nations sharing similar agenda of arms control regime. It has become an important structure for enhancing regional economic cooperation through the development of Europe-Caucasus-Asia transportation corridor, and a forum for discussion on various levels of existing security problems, promoting conflict resolution and elimination of other risks and threats.

It is at that period of time that this group has become an example of something, not really found before and something which I would like to mention specifically. It is the very composition of GUUAM, which is diverse both ethnically (Slavic, Turkic, Roman, and Iberian) and religiously (Orthodox Christian, Roman Catholic, Shi’ah Moslem, and Sunni Moslem). I dare say that in a certain sense the decades of the Soviet regime when we were all made to subjugate our differences to our rulers’ aims, have helped us in the period after the USSR’s collapse. We had little difficulty in learning to harmonize our uniqueness with a common, and very natural, goal – to become truly independent.

In the year 2000 this development continued further, turning GUUAM into a very effective forum for interaction, at least from Azerbaijani perspective. Along with on-going regular meetings of the Committee of National Coordinators and other get-togethers on the high expert level (the next one, by the way, is scheduled to commence in less than a week in Baku), a number of other significant and high-level events took place. In May of 2000 a seminar was held on GUUAM in the US Senate under the aegis of the Foreign Relations European Affairs chairman Gordon Smith, concentrating on the approach of the participating countries to the future of this group. GUUAM’s contribution into counter-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and sensitive technologies was specifically emphasized.

In yet another proof of GUUAM’s growing visibility on the Capitol Hill the US Senate passed the Defense and Security Assistance Act of 2000. This legislation contains one whole section dealing with GUUAM and providing $ 8,5 mil in the FY 2001 and $ 37 mil in the FY 2002. I highly appreciate efforts of the many senators who fought for this bill and also for providing better assistance to GUUAM. We are working to get funds appropriated in accordance with this authorization.

In November, 2000 in Vienna Ministers of Foreign Affairs of all five members have adopted the Joint Communique, approving the Perspective Plan of Development of GUUAM for 2000-2001, discussing establishment of the Public Consultative Council, draft Agreement on the free trade zone, etc. A meeting of the Ministers with the US Secretary of State took place there too, re-iterating the ever-growing American interest to GUUAM. A big step towards institutionalizing GUUAM was made at the GUUAM Summit in June, 2001 in Yalta.

The US universities have started showing considerable academic interest to GUUAM, covering multi-faceted interaction within the group. A number of events, including the GUUAM workshop at Stanford, and discussions at the Washington University in St.Louis, also took place in 2000. This year’s Harvard initiative on GUUAM within the framework of the Black Sea Security program is an excellent example and an indicator of American public’s growing attention.

If asked which areas of cooperation within GUUAM are the most important, I’d say that there are three top priorities, which fully coincide with the proclaimed US policy goals in the post-Soviet space (as you know, these goals comprise support to the independence of states, their transformation to democracy and market – oriented societies, efforts aimed at energy development, as well as at resolution of conflicts):

First priority for GUUAM is political interaction within the framework of integration into Euro-Atlantic and European structures of security and cooperation. It includes establishment of interaction with the UN, OSCE, European Union and other international organizations, as well as of dialogue with NATO. It is fully acknowledged by the GUUAM countries that developing safe and reliable infrastructure which comprises well-trained and well-equipped forces and institutions will undoubtedly make a considerable contribution to the European and world security architecture.

Second, economic cooperation. Initial important steps were made on the path towards establishing the Europe-South Caucasus-Central Asia transit corridor, in which the GUUAM countries would play the very important role because of their geostrategic location.

Cooperation in energy sector includes working together on several major goals, which comprise minimizing effects of external financial crises in the GUUAM countries, accelerating the development of Caspian oil deposits and constructing multiple pipelines to the international markets. Main Export Pipeline, which is in the stage of detailed engineering, will become a backbone for the whole transportation corridor. I think, it is high time for all of us, including our Western partners, to think about the pipeline security issues. It is not an issue of the future any more, it is the matter of immediate urgency.

This year’s US-supported seminar on cooperation among the Chambers of Commerce of GUUAM member-states, held in Baku and attended also by representatives of Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Kazakhstan, became another vivid demonstration of the commonality of economic interests beyond energy sector.

And, finally, third. Cooperation in opposing ethnic and religious intolerance. The GUUAM states believe that both religious extremism and ethnic terrorism are among main reasons of numerous regional conflicts. And we in Azerbaijan, with 20% of our territory under foreign military occupation and approximately 1 million refugees and displaced, attach special importance to peaceful settlement of regional conflicts based on respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the frontiers of all states. The recent visit of the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Zlenko to Baku provided another proof of the commonality of interests in this area.

This goal is becoming more and more significant today, when an international coalition of nations is standing by the United States in its fight against terrorism. Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan are important allies in the US efforts to eradicate terror, and the other three GUUAM members – Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova, have also pledged their support.

Resolution of conflicts, countering aggressive separatism and all forms of chauvinism, along with putting an end to arms deliveries to the zones of conflicts, which create fertile environment for terror, have become as important to our nations, as other things, which sound much more universal (political interaction, economic and security-related cooperation etc.)

In the context of all the aforementioned tasks NATO-GUUAM cooperation, activities in the framework of PfP programs and relations with the United States are of considerable importance to all five states.

In the recent year cooperation and mutual support of the five countries at the international forums have strengthened, with the GUUAM members not only coordinating their positions, but as well undertaking joint initiatives. The inter-cultural dialogue and common statement on terrorism at the United Nations are two most explicit examples of that. Most recently another statement, presented by the Azerbaijani representative to the UN on behalf of the five GUUAM states has shown that this cooperation is ever-growing.

For our western partners interrelationship with GUUAM can become the core of their policy in two regions at the same time. GUUAM’s role as a link between the areas of Black Sea and Caspian Sea is, without doubt, just another of the numerous advantages it can provide in terms of cooperation.

Let me close by saying that we, in GUUAM, are proud of what we have already achieved, the way we have helped each other to overcome our common problems. We are only 10 years old, all of us, and the problems we encounter are the same. In the future we should deal with them on a collective basis, helping each other out, as friends do.

We are also fully aware that we need to work hard to make GUUAM fully functional, and it is us who are ultimately responsible for the success of this organization. Still, we could use some help, and we trust that it can be found here, in America, where experts have quite some time ago realized that any assistance to GUUAM, be it direct or indirect, is in the best interest of the West, and the US public slowly but surely arrives to the same conclusion.

It is especially important at a time when the world community is coming together as a solid coalition in a face-off with the international terrorism.