Uzbekistan won't attend GUUAM summit in Yalta

Uzbekistan is not going to attend the summit meeting of the GUUAM, which is scheduled to take place in Yalta on July 19th-20th, reported the Uzbek foreign ministry on Thursday. The GUUAM is a regional organization uniting Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova, and /until recently/ Uzbekistan.

The foreign ministry reminded RIA Novosti that Uzbekistan has suspended its membership in the GUUAM, adding that the republic will nevertheless keep an eye on everything that's going on in the framework of this organization.

It will be recalled that Tashkent has been expressing its discontent about the GUUAM, which it said was nothing but "talking-shop." The organization was set up during the 1990s by the leadership of Georgia and Ukraine and intended as a sort of counterweight to the Commonwealth of Independent States. However, the GUUAM turned out nothing particularly important from the point of view of politics and economics.

According to the Uzbek foreign ministry, Tashkent attaches great importance to bilateral mutually advantageous relations with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.