Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs
of the
H.E. Dr. Vilayat Guliyev
at the GUUAM-US meeting
Dear colleagues and friends!
It gives me a great pleasure to
participate in this meeting, which constitutes an important step for the
further development of the GUUAM-US dialogue. We all remember that this
particular dialogue has been launched at the meeting between the GUUAM
Participating States Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the US Secretary of State
in Vienna in November 2000 and continued at our meeting with the US
Undersecretary of State in November last year.
Regardless someone's biased statements and
pessimistic remarks concerning future of our Grouping, the GUUAM nevertheless
has been consistently moving on the way of deepening and broadening its
interactivity and partnership, based on a solid ground of common interests and
common aspirations. As we know a number of significant documents, which
enshrine fundamental goals of GUUAM and are aimed at achievement of strategic
missions, were adopted at the Yalta Summit on 19-20 July 2002. In this regard I
would also like to use today's opportunity to hail the presence of Ambassador
Taylor, Coordinator for the
I believe we all agree that our intentions
to cooperate are based on a great potential that we need to explore and exploit
for the mutual benefit of all our nations. The process of globalization and
development of new technologies has opened up new prospects that used to be
hardly seen before and opportunities that we do not have right to miss. First
and foremost it applies to such important fields of economy as transportation
and communications. Located at important transit crossroads the GUUAM Member
States have great importance for routes of transportation between East and
West,
However we will not
succeed in development of transport corridors until and unless we pay due attention
to the whole range of threats, risks and challenges to their security.
Moreover, such negative phenomena as terrorism, organized crime, various forms
of extremism, illicit trade of weapons and nuclear materials, human trafficking
and illegal migration create serious obstacles for sustainable development of
our states and regional stability in general. Once underestimated and left with
inadequate attention these negative challenges can ruin all our hopes.
In order not to let this disastrous
scenario become a cruel reality we all have to unify our efforts and to fight
all the threats and risks mentioned above in a resolute manner. We cannot do
this having no relevant action plans and road maps.
In this connection, dear colleagues, we
have to intensify development of both middle- and long-term cooperation
projects and programs in various fields of common interest. I want to
appreciate highly the readiness of our American partners to render assistance
in this vital sphere, as it was expressed by the
I suppose we all agree that fight against
terrorism constitutes the most important field of our cooperation, as it was
particularly indicated in the GUUAM-US Joint Statement of 14 November 2001,
which stressed crucial importance of mutual cooperation, especially, in
security of transport corridors, preventing drug trafficking, illegal weapon
trade and migration. In this regard I would like to invite the experts of the
relevant
Within the GUUAM-US cooperation framework
we can consider the project aimed at creation of information-communication
system for exchange of information between relevant authorities involved in
fight against terrorism and organized crime. Another project that can also become
a subject for detailed discussions is a program of training of the border guard
personnel for acting under the border crisis conditions.
At this high forum I deem it necessary to
draw the attention of our distinguished American partners to such fundamental
documents adopted at the Yalta Summit 2002 as the Declaration on
Common Efforts to Ensure Stability and Security in the Region and
Agreement on Cooperation among the
Governments of GUUAM Participating States in the Field of Combat Against
Terrorism, Organized Crime and Other Dangerous Types of Crimes. These
documents constitute important basis for the GUUAM cooperation in respective
spheres. I have no doubts that assistance in their proper implementation could
become subject for numerous projects of the GUUAM-US cooperation. Yet there is
still another direction of cooperation in this field left unnamed so far. All
the GUUAM Member States do recognize that money laundering is a serious crime,
which is being extremely often used for financing terrorism. We all cooperate
actively with the
Dear friends,
As a relatively new regional arrangement
the GUUAM is extremely interested in the research activities that are able to
identify major common needs and ways to address them, including those within
the GUUAM-US dialogue. In this connection we would like to appreciate highly
such events as the workshop USA-GUUAM
Strategic Partnership in the War against Terrorism held at the James
Madison University in Washington, D.C. on 30 April 2002 and the seminar GUUAM: Cooperating to Build Regional
Security held at the George C. Marshall Center for European Security
Studies in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany on 22-25 July 2002. We consider these
events as very important for all of the Member States in particular and the
Group in general, as well as for our American partners. These discussions help
us to better understand our common goals, individual capacities and potential
for interaction. However, these kind of research and
discussion fora can only yield significant results if and when correlated to
the daily practice and continued in a regular manner.
Dear colleagues,
It is with a deep regret and great sorrow
that we commemorated first anniversary of the tragic events of September 11 few
days ago. Barbaric terrorist attacks perpetrated on this black day of the world
history have clearly and pitilessly demonstrated how vulnerable are we all in the face of evil. Once again they have
unequivocally set a choice before the humankind: either we will join our
efforts and walk shoulder to shoulder on the rocky way towards final victory or
we will be defeated one by one watching each other's struggle as its individual
cause until the evil comes for us eventually. I think the choice is natural and
we will not waste time thinking over which option to select. If we want our
children to live in the world, which is more secure and stable, we cannot
afford the luxury of being long on words, but short on actions. Because the evildoers do not. And it is the major imperative
we need to bear in mind constantly.
Thank you.