AZERBAIJAN HOSTS GUAM SUMMIT

The presidents of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Romania, Lithuania, and Poland and the prime minister of Moldova attended a summit of the GUAM regional alignment in Baku on June 18-19, together with lower level representatives from Latvia, Bulgaria, Austria, Japan, and the United States, Azerbaijani media reported. Founded in late 1997 to counter perceived Russian revanchism, GUAM (of which Uzbekistan was for a few years also a member) has evolved into a counterweight to the Commonwealth of Independent States, which GUAM members perceive as an ineffective instrument by which Russia seeks to preserve its dwindling influence over other former Soviet republics. Its members have also sought to capitalize to the maximum degree on the potential of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine to serve as an energy corridor from the Caspian to Europe, bypassing Russia.