GUAM Foreign Ministers Sign Communiqué

Tbilisi / 09.10.17 / Turan: On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the formation of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development - GUAM, a special meeting of the GUAM Foreign Ministers was held in Tbilisi on Saturday.

Within the framework of the meeting, a communiqué was signed, which reaffirmed the unanimous opinion of all four member countries of the organization, to continue close cooperation. After the meeting, a joint press conference of the GUAM Secretary General Altai Efendiyev and the Foreign Ministers of the member countries was held.

"We talked about new visions that should be part of the overall strategy. It is very important that we have an open dialogue between us that serves the development of democracy and economy of our countries," Georgian Foreign Minister Mikhail Janelidze stated.

The Foreign Ministers focused on the current and future cooperation in the GUAM format, as well as on deepening economic relations and contacts between the peoples. They also touched upon common problems, in particular, the problem of territorial integrity, which is present in all four member countries of the organization.

"The territorial integrity and sovereignty of our countries are violated, and in this respect, of course, the position of our countries is that it must be overcome and our sovereignties and territorial integrity in the internationally recognized borders must be respected. We talked about various economic projects, because we believe that strengthening of sovereignty should be carried out through well-being and economic strengthening," Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, also focused his attention on the occupied territory problem. And Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova Andrei Galbour for his part noted that Moldova looks forward to the next year"s transfer of the GUAM chairmanship from Georgia to Moldova and wishes to actively work on the vision of the future development of the organization.

The GUAM Foreign Ministers were received by Georgian President Georgy Margvelashvili and Prime Minister Georgy Kvirikashvili. -02D-