FROM GUUAM TO GAU

?If certain members of GUUAM have decided to abandon that five-country group, they are proceeding with decorous discretion. Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova formed the group in 1998, with Uzbekistan joining in April 1999 during a Washington summit. The group aimed mainly to counterbalance the influence of Moscow and its loyalists in CIS bodies, uphold the five countries’ common interests in international forums, align with Western positions in those forums, and promote oil and gas transport routes around Russia in order to reduce the latter’s leverage over producer and consumer countries. GUUAM’s members also discussed the creation of joint units to provide security for pipelines and possibly to perform peacekeeping missions.