GUUAM NEWS
Embassies of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan – Washington, D.C.- March 26, 2002
Azerbaijan:
*President Aliyev appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov as his personal
representative to the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks.
*Speaking to the
visiting delegation of the U.S. Air Force College on March 12, Defense Minister
Safar Abiyev emphasized that Azerbaijan
pays special attention to security cooperation with the United
States. “Azerbaijan
continues its integration into the world’s structures and attaches’ a great
importance to its cooperation with NATO and the USA. This cooperation should widen and deepen,”
said Mr. Abiyev.
Georgia:
*President Shevardnadze
appointed Ambassador Tedo Japaridze,
who served in Washington
since 1994, as his National Security Advisor.
The new head of Georgia’s
mission to the United
States is Mr. Levan Mikeladze, formerly Permanent
Representative to the OSCE and other international
organizations in Vienna,
Austria.
*The United
States has intensified its
support to strengthening Georgia’s
border security, including assistance in building new hangars. Last month, U.S. officials announced a $64 million
program to train Georgian troops in anti-terrorist techniques.
Moldova:
*Moldova has joined the UN-led humanitarian
mission in Afghanistan with four transport helicopters. The
aircraft have been hired by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that delivers humanitarian aid to inaccessible regions
of the country. The FAO have signed an agreement for
a period of three months, starting February 1, 2002.
*Moldovan delegation led
by Foreign Minister Nicolae Dudau
met with top EU officials during a recent visit to Brussels. The Chisinau delegation stressed
that the Republic of Moldova's integration into the European
structures remains a priority for the country’s foreign policy. The European officials have also
been briefed on the social-political situation in the
country and the Government’s perspective on settlement of the
Transnistrian conflict.
Foreign
Minister Dudau affirmed that the Republic of Moldova is determined to solve all the
existing problems by peaceful means, in accordance with the principles of
the international rights and European standards.
Ukraine:
*On March 31, 2002 parliamentary elections will take
place in Ukraine for the third time since its
independence. Representatives of 42 political parties and blocs have been
included onto electoral commissions. As of March 12, 2002, some 33 political parties and
blocks have been participating in the election campaign. Some 3,982 candidates are
competing in multi-mandate all-state districts and 3,383 in the single-mandate ones. President Kuchma
has officially invited the UN, European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE as well as representative from many countries to
monitor the preparation and voting process.
*Mr.Todiychuk, Chairman of the
Ukrainian oil transportation company Ukrtransnafta, presented
the Odesa-Brody Pipeline project - the Ukrainian
route for transportation of Caspian oil to Europe- to an oil conference in Houston on February 15. The Odesa-Brody Pipeline and associated Pivdenniy
Marine Terminal are both 100% complete and ready to transport Caspian oil to Europe and beyond. The Odesa-Brody
Pipeline solves the capacity problem of the Bosphorus
and can transport high-quality light sweet crude oil from the Caspian region to
refineries in Central and Eastern Europe.
Uzbekistan:
* On March 25, President Islam Karimov received U.S Senators Richard
Shelby, Bill Nelson and Congressman Robert Craner. President
Karimov expressed satisfaction with his recent
official visit to the US.
Among the agreements signed during the President’s visit to Washington
was the United States-Uzbekistan Declaration on the Strategic Partnership and
Cooperation Framework, which affirmed affirms a joint commitment to
establishing stability and security in Central
Asia and focused on political and economic
relations as well as security, legal and humanitarian cooperation. A separate bilateral document was signed on
nuclear nonproliferation cooperation.
Speaking to
journalists in Tashkent,
Senator Shelby said that President George Bush had appealed to the Congress to
increase financial aid to Uzbekistan
and the region with a view to stepping up mutually-beneficial cooperation and
supporting political and economic stability in Uzbekistan.
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