Pak., China may become part of CIS grouping

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, JUNE 8. Pakistan and China may some day be invited to join a pro-Western regional grouping of five post-Soviet States to become part of a projected trans-Asian trade route.

This possibility was raised at a summit of GUUAM, which unites Georgia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, in the Ukrainian city of Yalta. The group was set up in 1999 on the fringes of NATO's 50th anniversary celebrations in New York with the aim of boosting economic and security links in close cooperation with NATO. GUUAM is the only group within the Commonwealth of Independent States that shuts out Russia.

The Yalta summit approved the group's charter, which gives GUUAM the status of an international regional organisation. The leaders of the group said their strategic task was to revive the Great Silk Road, which used to link the East and the West for centuries. In this connection, the President of Uzbekistan, Mr. Islam Karimov, did not rule out accession of ``China, Pakistan and other countries'' to GUUAM, as the transport route mulled by the group was important for other nations as well, the Interfax news agency said in a report from the GUUAM summit.

``With the passage of time, other States will join us,'' the President of Georgia, Mr. Eduard Shevardnadze, was quoted as saying after the summit. He mentioned Romania and Bulgaria as other likely candidates for GUUAM entry. The President of Ukraine, Mr. Leonid Kuchma, also mentioned China and Pakistan as the countries interested in the establishment of a new transport route. The member-States decided to introduce an observer status for GUUAM and to change the name of their grouping when more nations join it. Plans for economic integration within the group suffered a setback as a free trade accord planned to be signed at Yalta was put off till the next summit in 2002 because of differences among the member-states.

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Section  : International
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