GUUAM PREPARING FOR INSTITUTIONALIZATION. In advance of a planned summit in Kyiv which is expected to institutionalize GUUAM, its five member
countries--Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova--are taking
collective steps to assert their association's presence on the
international level. The government of Azerbaijan seems to be playing a
coordinating role in these efforts.

On October 26, the five countries registered with the United Nations the
documents of GUUAM's September summit in New York as founding documents.
The memorandum, signed by the five presidents on that occasion, underscores
the group's aspiration to develop direct links with the UN, the Council of
Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the
European Union and the NATO. That statement makes clear statement that
GUUAM's countries do not consider themselves to be part of a "CIS space"
and that that they see their future in association with the West.

Three days earlier, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma had publicly
suggested that the governments of Romania and Bulgaria consider the
possibility of joining GUUAM in some form next year. Such a move would form
part of common efforts to secure the westward transit of Caspian oil and
gas and the creation of transit corridors from Western Europe to the South
Caucasus. Also on October 23 in Kyiv, members of the Verkhovna Rada
announced plans to hold an interparliamentary conference of GUUAM countries
as early as January 2001 in Baku.

In Chisinau on October 24, the "GUUAM national coordinators"--an office
special created in each of the five member countries--held a inaugural
meeting to plan the implementation of the September summit's decisions. The
meeting focused on energy imports, the creation of transit routes, the goal
of forming a GUUAM free trade zone, and prospects for the accession of new
member countries. The Ukrainian government has taken a lead in drafting
proposals toward the creation of a free trade zone.

In the United States, the GUUAM countries' ambassadors have inaugurated a
practice of making joint appearances to expound their common positions on
international problems. In the most recent appearance of this kind, the
ambassadors of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova shared a university platform
last week to discuss the problems posed by the Russian troops in the South
Caucasus and Moldova and other challenges to the national independence of
their countries. The five countries have launched an electronic newsletter,
GUUAM News, the inaugural issue of which has appeared in October (Turan,
UNIAN, Basapress, October 20, 23, 26, November 1, 4; see GUUAM News at
www.guuam.org; see the Monitor, September 12, October 19; Fortnight in
Review, October 20).
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