[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Downwithcapitalism <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, May 18, 2001 7:26 PM Subject: [downwithcapitalism] FW: f. S.U. nations seek 'common union' MD News. 18 May 2001. Russian State Duma Welcoming Union of Russia, Belarus and Moldova. The Russian State Duma Commission on Transdniestria welcomes the statements by Vladimir Voronin and Igor Smirnov on their readiness to consider the possibility of the admittance of the Republic of Moldova to this union. Gheorgy Tikhonov, Head of the "Russia's Regions" Parliamentary group, has announced it at a press conference. As he has underlined, the commission views these statements as a real basis for the attainment of progress in the settlement of the Transdniestrian conflict. In Tikhonov's opinion, the declaration of their striving for joining this union on the part of the top leaders of Moldova and Transdniestria remove the differences, they had had before". "If Moldova was oriented towards Romania and Europe, whereas Transdniestria towards Russia before, so today both of them are oriented towards the East - towards the Russian-Belarusian Union", the Parliamentary underlined. According to him, his commission is devising an address to the Presidents of the RF, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, as well as to the Transdniestrian administration. He is going to commit this document to the next Duma sitting next Tuesday. As the parliamentary has clarified, the document calls upon all the Presidents to organize comprehensive consultations to study as soon as possible the possibilities of setting up the State of Russia, Belarus and Moldova. He proposes that special commissions should be set up to speed up this process. The draft resolution by the State Duma also proposes that the Russian Duma, the Parliaments of Belarus and Moldova should carry out consultation on setting up a common Union. <>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--<> MD News. 18 May 2001. Moldova and Ukraine Sign 6 Cooperation Documents. Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin began an official visit to Ukraine today, during which 6 documents on bilateral cooperation have already been signed. These are the agreements on no-visa crossing the common border by the citizens of the 2 countries, on reciprocal recognition of documents on education and scientific degrees, on scientific and technological cooperation in the agriculture field, and on cooperation between the ministries of justice, culture, and education. Before the delegations' working session and document signature, Presidents Vladimir Voronin and Leonid Kuchma had a one hour long tete-a-tete meeting, and signed a joint declaration. After the signature ceremony, the Presidents appeared at a news conference and expressed satisfaction about development of the bilateral relationship. They stated intention to achieve a more complete utilization of the countries' potentials for developing economic collaboration and trade. The Presidents spoke out for a more active cooperation in realizing investment projects, in banking sphere, in creating joint ventures, passenger and cargo transportation, in eliminating obstacles to cargo transit. Voronin stressed the Ukrainian community is the biggest ethnic group in Moldova, after the title nation, numbering over 600 thousand people. "This compels us to take the interests of ethnic Ukrainians into a due account", he said. "I am full of optimism. We have worked constructively here, and there are good perspectives for realizing all the achieved accords", he stressed. Leonid Kuchma highlighted that the 2 countries have no differences concerning the building of good neighborly relations and cooperation development for the good of the two peoples. According to him, the sides discussed also various issues of interaction in regional and international organizations. The Presidents spoke out for deepening their cooperation in international organizations. They pointed out the key role played by the OSCE in consolidating security on the European continent, and condemned international terrorism, separatism, other negative development. Leonid Kuchma told the news conference that all the GUUAM presidents will gather for a summit in Yalta (Crimea, Ukraine) on June 6-7. He underlined once again that GUUAM [Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Moldova] "is not a military-political alliance. This is a union called to solve economic problems, first and foremost transportation". According to him, GUUAM may consider creating a free trade zone, but this shall in no way influence Ukraine's cooperation within the CIS or Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) frames. Vladimir Voronin supported his colleague's words that the GUUAM cooperation will not affect collaboration within other organizations' frameworks. Before leaving to Kiev, Voronin told INFOTAG that Moldova will be participating in GUUAM to the degree to which this cooperation does not contradict to the interests of cooperation within the CIS. President Leonid Kuchma stated at the news conference Ukraine is interested in a soonest-possible solution of the Transnistrian conflict. "You are our neighbors, so neither ourselves nor European Union states want to have 'hot spots' in fact on the Ukrainian border. Moldova must be a unified state, in which the Transnistrian region should be provided with broad plenary powers. This was and is our stance", he said. According to him, Ukraine backs Moldova in resolving the Transnistrian dispute, and shall be promoting its settlement in every possible way. Ukraine welcomes the positive dialog which is beginning between the Moldovan and Transnistrian leaders. Mr Kuchma believes that the documents, signed by the leaders lately, inspire a hope that the conflict solution process will be accelerated. "We are open to cooperation. We are neighbors, and shall be doing everything to make our cooperation serve the interests of our nations. The Moldovan border must be brought closer to Ukraine. This [common border] is almost 1,200 kilometers long. That's not little", he stressed. Ukraine is prepared to begin setting up jointly-run border guard stations "in order to simplify the border-crossing process and toughen control over it". ................................. Also. See below for a report on the proposed unification of the Russian and Ukrainian power grids. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/downwithcapitalism/message/2029 SPAM TO FOLLOW Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
