VILNIUS - A new regional alliance of nations aiming to reinvigorate the economic and democratic integration of Eastern Europe was formed last weekend on the Crimean peninsula, with the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Georgia vowing to cooperate on a host of regional issues.
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus saluted the meeting, which also touched upon obstacles to regional development, such as Belarus.
"I am convinced that only close cooperation among our countries will help Ukraine and Georgia, and certainly other countries of the region as well, follow the road of reforms, democracy and economic welfare," Adamkus was quoted as saying by the President's Office. "Meetings and conversations must be held on a regular basis," he added.
The Crimean summit was a follow-up to a recent meeting of the Ukrainian and Georgian presidents 's Viktor Yushchenko and Mikhail Saakashvili 's in Borjomi, Georgia, where the two leaders, both of whom came to power after popular revolutions, declared their intention to form a new organization, Community of Democratic Choice, that would "unite democracies of the Baltic, Black Sea and Caspian region" and "begin a new era of democracy and security across the whole of Europe, from the Atlantic to the Caspian."
Given the two countries' tense relations with Russia, many see the new community as a challenge to Russia's regional ambitions.
Adamkus was one of the first to respond to the idea of the CDC. "I have said on a number of earlier occasions that cooperation between the countries of the Baltic and Black Sea regions has excellent prospects," he said.
"So I welcome the initiative of the new democratic leaders of Ukraine and Georgia, one which, I hope, will serve a strong stimulus for erasing the dividing lines in the region, resolving old conflicts, preventing violations of human rights and opening up opportunities for a new era of democracy, security, stability and lasting peace," Adamkus said.
Lithuania's president expressed hope that his Baltic counterparts would support the initiative as well.
Russian political analysts quickly labelled the idea as a conspiracy, and interpreted the move as a wish to secede from the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose alliance of 12 post-Soviet nations that includes both Georgia and Ukraine.
Konstantin Zatulin, director of the private Institute of CIS Countries, told Interfax that the two countries "want to be liked by the West and demonstrate first and foremost to Russia that they left the CIS." He stated that, in response, Russia should not make any future concessions to these countries, such as speeding up the process of withdrawing bases from Georgia.
Viacheslav Nikonov, president of the Moscow-based Politics Foundation, agreed that the Crimea meeting was a bilateral step to creating an anti-Russian coalition. "Such an alliance can lead to the isolation of Russia from its largest trade partner - the EU," Interfax quoted him as saying.
Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported that the new organization, besides counterbalancing Moscow's influence, is also intended to develop a new oil transport corridor from the Caspian Sea to Europe, which would bypass Russia's Transneft pipeline monopoly.
But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk said that this new alliance would not be an "alternative to the CIS," and is only in the conceptual phase. However, he said he was not surprised that CIS members have tried to find other organizations during the last 14 years since the effectiveness of CIS was low.
"Neither Ukraine nor Georgia caused the crisis within the CIS, but the inability to respond to key issues which concern the CIS countries did," he told a press briefing in Kiev.
Adamkus denied Russian media statements that future cooperation between the four countries would be aimed against Moscow. "It was stated clearly that the region has to look toward the West 's it has to manage itself under the new principles, and we have to support each other in this," the Lithuanian president said.
Another aim of the Crimean meeting was to discuss the increasingly tenuous situation in Belarus. The heads of Georgia, Lithuania and Ukraine expressed understanding for Poland in its concern over the situation with the Polish minority in Belarus and said they would coordinate their policy toward Minsk.
