BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

28/11/2006

Heads of ex-Soviet republics open Belarus summit to focus on reforming their organization

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: The heads of 11 former Soviet republics on Tuesday set out their views in the increasingly contentious debate over how the Commonwealth of Independent States can be transformed into an influential and effective organization.

The question has long hung over the Moscow-dominated group, which skeptics see as little more than a talking shop that has been unable to resolve long-running conflicts between its members.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are at loggerheads over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia has imposed a punishing transport and travel ban and economic sanctions against Georgia, and Moscow is haggling over natural gas prices with even its closest ally, Belarus.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose oil-rich Central Asian nation holds the group's rotating presidency, told a closing news conference that fewer than one-third of the group's 1,600 agreements are being implemented.

"But that does not discredit the idea of integration," Nazarbayev said. "We have great potential for cooperation. We need a new, effective mechanism, a new impulse for new energy."

He said CIS leaders had called on the group's Cabinet to prepare a reform plan by June 1.

Nazarbayev has proposed turning the CIS into a free-trade zone like the European Union.

That could help keep in the fold Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, which are seeking to move out of Russia's shadow and have expressed skepticism about the future of the CIS. The three, along with Azerbaijan, have formed a group seen as an alternative to the commonwealth.

But reform is anathema to stalwarts such as Belarus, whose authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has said talk of transforming the organization was in the interest of "enemies" intent on ruining the CIS.

"Our summit is being closely watched not just in the Commonwealth of Independent States but the entire world," Lukashenko warned at the opening ceremony in Belarus' shining new National Library.

The CIS heads adopted agreements on humanitarian cooperation and an anti-terrorism center, but put off discussion on Ukrainian proposals to form a free-trade zone and define borders between CIS states. Russia and Ukraine still have disputed borders 15 years after the Soviet collapse.

Most discussions at CIS summits are held behind closed doors, and information about what goes on comes out mostly in reports leaders' aides leak to their country's reporters.

But Tuesday's summit offered a rare dose of drama when some Russian reporters walked out to protest the barring of three of their colleagues from covering the meeting, apparently reflecting tension between Russia and Belarus. A state-run Russian network led its evening news with the flap, and the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed "surprise" and threatened an unspecified response.

Several leaders held bilateral meetings. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev and Armenian President Robert Kocharian discussed Nagorno-Karabakh in a meeting at the Russian Embassy that was also attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the embassy said.

Nazarbayev said that the group had not discussed the Georgia-Russia dispute, "but there was an exchange of opinions between the presidents. That strengthens the hope that these relations will be stabilized if there is good will on both sides." The Kremlin said that Putin and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili did not meet one-on-one, but confirmed they had exchanged words during the summit talks.

One of the founders of the CIS, former Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich, said there were increasingly few reasons for it to stay together since members had chosen such different paths.

"Ukraine, for example, aspires to the EU. And what common interests can it have with Uzbekistan?" he said.

As for Moscow's role, he said, "neo-imperialist Russia is only pushing away its potential allies, which is perfectly obvious even in the case of Belarus." Russia is trying to hike the price Belarus pays for gas fourfold to US$200 (?155) per 1,000 cubic meters, stoking tension despite close ties and Russia's continuing support for Lukashenko.

The 12-member CIS includes all the former Soviet republics except the three Baltic states: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov rarely attends its meetings.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/28/europe/EU_GEN_Belarus_CIS.php