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MEMBERSHIP The following countries are the nine founding member states of the Community: HISTORY AND PRECEDENTS The primary historical precedent of this community may be GUAM which brought together the governments of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova (and for some time Uzbekistan as well) and was likewise largely thought to have the function of counterbalancing Russian influence in the area. The effectiveness and strength of that organization is, however, disputed. The creation of the Community itself was itself foreshadowed by the Borjomi Declaration of August 2005, a joint statement signed by the Presidents of Georgia and Ukraine, Mikheil Saakashvili and Viktor Yushchenko , which envisioned the Community as a "powerful instrument for removing the remaining divisions in the Baltic - Black Sea region, human rights violations, and any type of confrontation, or frozen conflict.” http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/12/045ad9d6-04ea-41ac-9c8e-6501191f1cd8.html The Community of Democratic Choice was finally created during a two-day forum aimed at promoting democracy and human rights in the wider region of the Baltic - Black - Caspian Seas. Besides the presidents of the nine founding states, there were also delegations from Azerbaijan , Bulgaria , the Czech Republic , Hungary , and Poland , and observers from the United States , the European Union , and the OSCE . There were a total of 120 participants in the forum. COMMENTS AND REACTIONS Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk stated in an interview that the community is not a project against anybody, but rather a project in favor of democracy, stability and prosperity. http://www.abhaber.com/news_page.asp?id=2332. Likewise President Viktor Yushchenko said that Our the initiative is not directed against any third countries or institutions, and that its purpose is not "to befriend anyone against someone else", but that it must rather be seen as "dialogue between friends, adherents of ideas for promoting democracy and the supremacy of law". On the other hand Giorgi Arveladze , presidential administration head of Georgia, said that the the community would in essense be "an axis of democratic countries that do not wish to remain in Russia's orbit." Teimur Iakobashvili , the vice-president of the Georgian Foundation For Strategic And International Studies said that he saw the Community of Democratic Choice as something in between the two main "poles of attraction" in the region (the EU and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization ) saying that "the idea of creating a Community of Democratic Choice may appeal to those countries that are caught between those two blocs, but lean toward democracy and the West." http://www.rferl.org/features/features_Article.aspx?m=12&y=2005&id=5E1861CC-16F9-4783-A0F7-E9CD1012E461 President of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin , urged the Community to develop its own institutions, including its own parliamentary assembly, saying that it offered a possibility to integrate those countries that have chosen a European orientation. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/12/045ad9d6-04ea-41ac-9c8e-6501191f1cd8.html POTENTIAL EXPANSION Prime Minister of Sweden Goran Persson has stated his country's intention to join the organization also. Saakashvilli welcomed this statement, saying that Sweden's entry would provide additional impetus to the CDC forum. http://www.caucaz.com/home_eng/depeches.php?idp=896 MEETINGS
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