Russia no longer Georgia's biggest trade partner, statistics show

Trade between Georgia and Russia fell 4.4 percent to $322m in the first quarter of 2007, compared to the same period a year earlier, the Georgian State Statistics Department reported, indicating that this was the first time that Russia has ceded its leading position in Georgia's foreign trade to Turkey, whose contribution stood at $387m in Q1 2007.

Georgia's trade with the CIS has also dropped. Where in January-June 2006, the CIS's share of Georgia's overall foreign trade stood at 41 percent, it has shrunk to 37 percent this year . At the same time, Georgia's trade with Ukraine has surged 41 percent to $263m, which put the republic at 3rd place among Georgia's foreign trade partners. [More]

Basescu against Russia's stance on CFE treaty

During the GUAM summit of ex-Soviet states at Baku, the Romanian President Traian Basescu emphasized on the region’s importance for energy security and pointed out the need for reduction of Europe’s dependency on Russian energy.

GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Republic of Moldova) regional bloc is seen as a counterweight to the Kremlin-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). [More]

Prospects of Cooperation under GUAM-Japan and GUAM-Poland Formats Discussed

On the 18th of June 2007 in Baku, Azerbaijan, the first meeting between the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development and Japan took place at the level of the GUAM Council of Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Mr. Mitoji Yabunaka, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan. The meeting was held in the framework of the Second Summit of the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development in Baku on the 18th to the 19th of June 2007.

As an alternative to CIS the four post-Soviet republics Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, established this format in 1999, during the summit of the head of state of the European Union member-countries in Strasbourg. In 1999 Uzbekistan joined the organization, but left after four years. GUAM was established as an economic alliance of countries – potential participants of energy resource transportation projects. [More]