MINSK, July 29 ??“ The much-heralded 22nd meeting of the high-level group on formation of a Common Economic Space between Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus has opened on Friday in Minsk, but don??™t expect the group to make much progress, at least if Ukraine has anything to do with it.

Ukraine??™s government under President Viktor Yushchenko has been ambivalent at best over the group, a key foreign policy initiative of his predecessor, Leonid Kuchma, since taking office this year. Not surprisingly, this CES meeting, which promoters had heralded as a key event in which participants would sign off on a package of 61 agreements intended to cement the project, a common market with supranational powers.