Ukraine: Energizing GUAM

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KIEV 000574 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT FOR EUR/UMB, EUR/ACE, EUR/SNEC AND EUR DAS BRYZA JUSTICE FOR ICITAP (DUCOT) AND OPDAT (LEHMANN) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL GUAM SUBJECT: Ukraine: Energizing GUAM REF: A. 05 Kiev 4159, B. 05 CHISINAU 526 C. 05 KIEV 4274, ¶D. 2/13/06 Scanlan email to the EUR-GUUAM collective (SBU) Sensitive but unclassified. Please handle accordingly. Not for Internet distribution. ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Foreign Ministry acknowledges GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova) is not yet a functioning regional organization, but is committed to getting Ukraine's house in order on the issue first, and then energizing GUAM. Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia are in agreement on how to implement the Chisinau Declaration, but Azerbaijan remains a dissenting view. A functioning Secretariat is critical to making GUAM a functional SIPDIS organization, but only Ukraine has paid its dues to the budget. U.S.-GUAM Framework projects for 2006 are ready to be launched. End summary. GOU: Organize Thyself, Then Help GUAM -------------- ¶2. (SBU) On the evolution of the regional organization GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova) toward becoming a functioning organization (ref A),Deputy Foreign Minister Veselovsky, the GOU's new National Coordinator for GUAM, acknowledged to EmbOffs January 19 that progress had been slow, adding that "even the GOU bureaucracy had not understood that it (GUAM) was inevitable." The Chisinau Declaration (ref B) had signaled the members' political will to turn GUAM into a functioning regional organization, but now declarations had to be turned into action. He said the MFA's clear mandate from the President and the PM was to energize the process. Over the next couple of weeks he planned to meet with his counterparts at other GOU Ministries involved in the GUAM process and gain consensus and commitment on moving forward, including the establishment of the overdue Kiev node of the GUAM Virtual Law Enforcement Center (VLEC). As a sign of recent progress, he pointed to the December 24, 2005 Cabinet of Ministers' decree approving the implementation of the Trade and Transportation Facilitation (TTF) project, Ukraine's payment in December of its 2005 dues of USD 21,000 to the budget of the GUAM Information Center, and President Yushchenko's recent decree instructing the GOU to identify a facility for the GUAM Information Center, which eventually would become GUAM's Secretariat. 
¶3. (SBU) DFM Veselovsky said that once GOU's house was in order on GUAM, the GOU would play a more assertive leadership role in the regional organization. The goal was to wrap up quickly the processes of drafting, as mandated in the Chisinau Declaration, a new charter and structure for GUAM (and perhaps a new name),so that the GUAM Presidential Summit, and the handover of the rotating Presidency from Moldova to Ukraine, could take place in April or May of 2006 as opposed to the traditional July date. The next "political" opportunity to move the process forward would be the upcoming GUAM National Coordinators Meeting, which would precede the meeting in Tbilisi of GUAM Foreign and Energy Ministers. (Note: As expanded on in para 4, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova have identical positions on the way forward; Azerbaijan is holding out for a different approach.) The latter Ministerial meeting had been tentatively scheduled for February 16, but, "because some members were not ready," it had been delayed until March. Ukraine in the interim would bilaterally engage Azerbaijan on outstanding issues, he said, as neither Moldova nor Georgia exerted much influence on Azerbaijan. Ukraine's relations with Azerbaijan had been complicated by the incident two months ago involving Azerbaijani opposition figure in exile Rasul Guliyev (ref C) but they were starting to move beyond that now. Azerbaijan is Out of Step -------------- ¶4. (SBU) In earlier meetings with EmbOff, Yevhen Koziy, Executive Director of the GUAM Information Office, stated that Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia were in step on the new charter and structure for GUAM. They favored clear principles of democracy, European integration, and common security. Regarding the structure of the Secretariat they favored a flexible and streamlined approach that would be operational; i.e., not bureaucratic and not expensive, and that would have the Secretariat serve as the coordinating and supporting structure for the organization. Azerbaijan baulked at including European integration as a principle and preferred adding another layer of decision makers within the Secretariat, although final decisions would still have to be deferred to the meetings of the National Coordinators or Foreign Ministers. The process forward, he said, was slow because on both occasions in Chisinau, July 12 and December 19, when empowered GUAM Deputy Foreign Ministers were assembled to take decisions, Azerbaijan sent only a first secretary from the MFA's Department for Security Issues with instructions only to listen. Koziy, who participated in the unofficial meeting of GUAM Foreign Ministers on the margins of the December 6, 2005 OSCE Ljubljana meeting, said Azerbaijani FM Azimov had been very positive and eager to proceed with GUAM, which only added to the confusion of what exactly is Azerbaijan's position. (Note: See ref D for copy of the drafting documents, with the dissenting Azerbaijani positions.) For a GUAM Secretariat, Members Need to Pay -------------- ¶5. (SBU) One area where Georgia and Moldova unfortunately were in step with Azerbaijan and not Ukraine, Koziy said, was on the non-payment of dues to support the GUAM Information Center. The Center currently consisted of a secretary (who just received four months back salary), SIPDIS Koziy, who is seconded from the Ukrainian MFA, and embassy officers from the three other member states who attend coordination meetings convened by Koziy. Despite the current limited funding ($21,000, i.e., the Ukrainian dues),the Center had a bank account, diplomatic status, and had started to play a supportive and coordinating role for GUAM, such as by maintaining GUAM documents and declarations. It had also started the process of developing a web site for the organization. U.S.-GUAM Framework Projects for 2006 Ready to Start -------------- -------------- ¶6. (U) Note: With the arrival at the end of January in Kiev of Alexandru Farcas as the new head of the Euro- Atlantic Advisory (EEA) Team and the recent engagement of ICITAP for the technical project, the U.S.-GUAM Framework projects (VLEC, TTF, and the Prosecutor Advisory Group) are ready to be implemented as reflected in the 2006 Action Plan drafted in the first half of January. As of mid- February both the EEA advisory team and the ICITAP technical team will be fully present in the field. Comment -------------- ¶7. (SBU) The last few months have seen the GOU begin to put into practice its public statements about promoting GUAM as a regional organization based on common values of democracy, European integration, and common security. With Ukraine committed to playing a more energized leadership role, the prospects of GUAM as an increasingly progressive influence on the region on the EU's eastern border has never been more promising. The U.S.-GUAM Framework projects will assist GUAM to produce tangible results for its citizens. However, things will remain complicated -- and will not address EU skepticism toward the organization -- if the GUAM Information Center, its de facto Secretariat, is not funded and made operational by its SIPDIS member states. Herbst