Abstract
The ODED-GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM) was originated more than two decades ago as a friendly cooperative forum of a few post-Soviet countries committed to Euro-Atlanticism. In 2006 the grouping was transformed into a full-fledged international organization bringing together Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. Notwithstanding the geostrategic role of cooperation within GUAM in terms of energy security, protracted conflicts, trade links and other key policy areas, the organization has been recurrently failing to create a common front for its member states. It has been mostly with the recent actualization of ambitious trade and transportation projects to engage the four states that GUAM started to “return to the big game” and attract significant attention from governments and scholars. This study explores the political and economic significance of international transport routes within the framework of intergovernmental relations exampling the origins and evolution, strengths and weaknesses of the GUAM Transport Corridor (GUAM TC) project, and also some insights on reingovirating the transport cooperation agenda in the GUAM region.
Highlights
The very founding document of the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM) grouping – the Strasbourg Declaration of 10 October 1997 – adopted by heads of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and Moldova at the margins of the Council of Europe summit acknowledged the prospects for employing their geographical location – a West-East gateway through the Caucasus and Eastern Europe – and corresponding economic opportunities to turn into a solid drive for their rapprochement
The four republics have had a justified interest in utilizing the transport and transit potential of the GUAM region and supplementing together a “very important element of the network of international economic security” [Cornell: 2005] – transportation corridor along the New Silk Road, especially since the development of a brand new transport corridor would bypass the existing routes via Russia which are economically more expensive and politically more fragile
For the GUAM Transport Corridor (GUAM TC) to come into reality, definitely, an agreed-upon transport and tariff policy of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova, the harmonization of their legislation to the extent necessary for proper and effective functioning of the free trade regime, the simplification of customs procedures on the crossing of goods are among essential conditions
Summary
The very founding document of the GUAM grouping – the Strasbourg Declaration of 10 October 1997 – adopted by heads of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and Moldova at the margins of the Council of Europe summit acknowledged the prospects for employing their geographical location – a West-East gateway through the Caucasus and Eastern Europe – and corresponding economic opportunities to turn into a solid drive for their rapprochement. A strategically important step – amidst the protracted crisis in the GUAM integration process – it signaled somehow “optimistic moods” towards the idea of developing the GUAM TC, ensuring its competitiveness, improving the network of communication routes along and beyond the corridor, and increasing the international traffic flow through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova.
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