Georgia seeks intensification of activities within GUAM

Georgia intends to strengthen activities in the framework of GUAM. The country officially started chairing GUAM on January 1, 2013

"We have plans on accession of other countries to the GUAM, such as Japan, and others willing to join the organization," Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said in Vilnius on Saturday.

According to the Georgian Foreign Ministry, Panjikidze noted that the Foreign Ministry supports intensification of inter-parliamentary relations between GUAM member states.

"We want to be a stabilizing power in the region, but the situation is certainly complex. Georgia is always ready to play a positive role to improve the situation in the region, however this is not so easy," she said.

GUAM was established by the post-Soviet countries in 1997 during the EU presidential summit at Strasbourg. In 1999, Uzbekistan joined the organization and left four years later. A decision was made to rename GUAM as an international organization called 'Organization for Democracy and Economic Development - GUAM', at the body's first summit in Kiev in 2006.


/Trend/