ARMENIAN LEADER LEAVING FOR KIEV TO PARTICIPATE IN CIS INFORMAL SUMMIT

Today Armenian president Robert Kocharian is leaving for Kiev to participate in the CIS informal summit. The leaders of the CIS states will not sign interstate documents in Kiev – such meetings in informal setting represent a good opportunity for them to discuss sore points. As written by “Nezavisimaya Gazeta,” in the personal conversations, as well as during common talks the heads of the CIS countries will without fail touch issues of economic interaction in the post-Soviet territory. It is becoming more evident to the former Soviet republics, the article notes, that only the Commonwealth market is open for their production. Indeed an actual free trade zone cannot be shaped in the CIS territory yet. The main obstacle was not the economic shortcomings of the possible cooperation. As noted by the newspaper, the problem is politicized due to the membership of Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia in GUAM – a union created with US support as a counterbalance of the EurAzEC.