KIEV, 18 September 2003 — Leaders of 11 former Soviet republics grouped as the Commonwealth of Independent States face two days of heated debate at a summit starting today in Kiev as they bid to forge a free-exchange zone. Their efforts will be complicated by a controversial initiative by four of the largest CIS members — Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus — aimed at forming a separate economic union.
Heads of state and foreign ministers of these countries, together with those of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, agreed to create a free-trade zone at an informal meeting in Saint Petersburg last May and are expected to sign it into existence tomorrow.
The 12th CIS member Turkmenistan has shunned the initiative (the CIS comprises the 15 republics that constituted the defunct Soviet Union minus the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).
United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Antonio Maria Costa has been invited to attend debates today, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Leonid Kuchma (Ukraine), Nursultan Nazarbayev (Kazakhstan) and Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus) may stand aside from the main business to sign a separate accord on creating a common economic space that is opposed not just in Brussels and Washington but even in Kiev.
Putin met Kuchma in the southern Russian city of Azov, closer to the border with Ukraine, on Wednesday and was due later to travel to Yalta to discuss the plan that Ukrainian ministers and deputies have opposed on the grounds that it runs counter to Kiev’s declared intention eventually to join the European Union and the World Trade Organization.
European Commissioner for Enlargement Guenther Verheugen warned Kiev last week of the problems that could arise from the creation of a customs union by the four republics. Bruce Jackson, a US official with the Western defense alliance NATO, also criticized Kiev’s decision.
One likely bone of contention is Ukraine’s demand that, in order to meet WTO rules, the four-nation economic union be total and unrestricted, a decision that would lead to a rise in gas and electricity prices in Russia.
Belarus too has some clashes of interest Russia, notably over Moscow’s recent decision to halt deliveries of gas at preferential prices.
In addition to economic issues, the leaders — all heads of state will be present except for Azerbaijan’s Heidar Aliyev, who is ill — are expected to discuss tensions in the Middle East and Iraq.