Azernews.Az

BAKU – Foreign ministers of the countries participating in the Visegrad group and Eastern Partnership program will gather in Bratislava on Thursday.

Azerbaijan will be represented at the meeting by Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev, the country’s foreign ministry spokesman, Elkhan Polukhov, said.

The meeting will also bring together foreign ministers from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, and Moldova, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and EU Commissioner for Enlargement and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), Stefan Fule.

Talks will focus on prospects for implementing the Eastern Partnership, a program aiming to boost cooperation between the EU and its ex-Soviet partners.

The Eastern Partnership, proposed by Poland and Sweden in May 2009, covers Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus. It envisages simplified visa regulations, free trade and closer energy cooperation. Membership in the 27-country bloc is not on the agenda at this point. The EU has allocated 600 million euros to implement the program.

The Visegrad Group, also known as the "Visegrad Four" or "V4", includes the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, members of the EU since 2004. It reflects the efforts of the central European countries to cooperate in a number of fields within the all-European integration. The V4 aims at encouraging cooperation with all countries, in particular its neighbors, with a view to promoting democratic development in all parts of Europe.