Azernews.Az

The 19th meeting of the GUAM Council of Foreign Ministers with the United States of America took place on the sidelines of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York, AzerTag state news agency reported.

The GUAM Side was represented by Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova Valeriu Chiveri, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara and GUAM Secretary General Valeri Chechelashivili.

The United States was represented by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland.

Following the meeting, the sides issued a statement, which reads that they assessed their cooperation following the last GUAM-USA Ministerial Meeting, held in New York on September 26, 2012, and exchanged views on issues of mutual interest.

"Both parties expressed interest in the dialogue that has taken place since the establishment of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development - GUAM.

"The parties exchanged views on the protracted conflicts in the GUAM region, and reiterated their belief that the international community should intensify efforts on the settlement of these conflicts on the basis of the UN Charter, Helsinki Principles and documents adopted in these formats. They agreed to continue dialogue on the issue in the appropriate forums.

"The parties emphasized the significance of the Eastern Partnership Vilnius Summit (November 28- 29, 2013) and expressed their support of the European aspirations of GUAM member states," the statement says.

The parties also reconfirmed decisions reflected in the GUAM - USA Joint Statement of 26 September 2012 on the importance of projects, supported by the United States and jointly implemented with other international organizations and structures, inter alia, to combat money-laundering, illegal drugs trafficking (both jointly with UNODC) and corruption (jointly with OECD/ACN). They supported the implementation of an infrastructure extension project for the GUAM Virtual Center on Combating Terrorism, Organized Crime, Drug Trafficking and Other Dangerous Types of Crime (VLEC) and a Cryptographic Protection System within VLEC. GUAM Ministers expressed their gratitude to the United States for its important assistance to GUAM, both financial and technical.

The parties reconfirmed their desire to continue high-level dialogue on a broad range of regional and global issues, the statement says.

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

Currently Georgia is chairing the GUAM.