Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The 24th meeting of the GUAM Foreign Ministers Council was held as part of the 21st session of the OSCE member states Foreign Ministers Council held in Basel, Switzerland on December 4-5.

Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov represented Azerbaijan at the meeting.

The meeting discussed the information of the presiding side Moldova, on the work done to promote the draft resolution titled “Protracted conflicts in the GUAM area and their implications for international peace, security and development”.

The member countries of the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development condemned the actions directed against their sovereignty and territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders.

The Council made a decision on approving coordinating countries of the GUAM sectoral working groups for a period between 2015 and 2016.

The council also mulled the issues of GUAM’s cooperation with other countries and international organizations, in particular holding the GUAM-US and GUAM-Japan regular meetings at the level of the Foreign Ministers Council.

The FMC also thanked the Moldovan side for a successful Presidency. The meeting participants made a decision to transfer Chairmanship to Ukraine.

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

The GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development is a regional organization of four post-Soviet states: Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova.