YEREVAN BELIEVES THAT GUUAM UNION HAS A NEGATIVE EFFECT ON CIS ACTIVITY

26.12.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. The Foreign Minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanian stated today at a press conference in Yerevan that the regional GUUAM union (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldavia) negatively effects CIS integration processes.
The minister noted that all the GUUAM member-states are represented in CIS, “and there is nothing to impede them to solve their economic integration problems within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States”. Armenia considers CIS a perspective structure, Oskanian said, noting at the same time that Yerevan gives much importance to the free trade zone formation in CIS, as well as to the establishment of Commonwealth Antiterrorist center. Minister Oskanian stressed that the member-states of the CIS Collective Security Agreement must make efforts so that “this structure became a real guarantee of security and stability in CIS”. -0-