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The GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development is a regional organization of four post-Soviet states: Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. Conceived in 1997 to harmonize and integrate commercial, diplomatic and democratic relations among its member states, the GUAM treaty charter was signed in 2001 and today covers a population of over 57 million people. Uzbekistan was also a member of GUAM in the 1999–2005 period. In 2003, GUAM became an observer in the UN General Assembly. In 2007, GUAM also established a military peacekeeping force and organized joint military exercises. Such increasingly deepened integration and relationships led to GUAM playing an important role in the region's diplomatic and commercial affairs. The agreement on a Free Trade Area was signed in 2002. In 2017, additional agreements on a free-trade area were announced, but as of 2022 reportedly the FTA has not been ratified and has not entered into force. The WTO was notified only in 2017 and the Agreement is designated as "Plurilateral" and "In Force". According to the WTO database, the GUAM FTA agreement was signed in 2002 and entered into force in 2003. International Trade Centre says there is no free trade area in operation with distinct rules from an Agreement on Creation of CIS Free Trade Area, was signed on 15 April 1994 by 12 CIS countries. The database of agreements of the International Trade Centre does not indicate that a GUAM FTA agreement has been concluded, but it does indicate that the 1994 Agreement on CIS FTA is in force for Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova. and the 1999 Agreement on CIS FTA version is listed as the current text of the FTA agreement. The official negotiating language of GUAM was Russian, but it was scrapped in favor of English in 2014. Election monitoring by GUAM has been described as "low-quality", as observers from the group validate flawed elections.