Baku, Azerbaijan, May 18
By Jamila Aliyeva - Trend:
The appointment of Altay Efendiyev to the post of the GUAM Secretary General will help Azerbaijan as a chairing-country to form its priorities in the organization and deliver a profound, saturated, ambitious program for the next year presidency, GUAM Secretary General Valery Chechelashvili told Trend May 18.
Chechelashvili was commenting on the appointment of a new GUAM Secretary General.
"Efendiyev is a very experienced, skilled career diplomat," he said. "He knows the region very well."
Chechelashvili expressed his hope that Efendiyev will attend a meeting of the GUAM Council of Foreign Ministers to be held in Belgrade in early December, where he will be able to meet with all ministers.
This meeting will be the last one this year.
Azerbaijan will assume the GUAM presidency from January 1, 2016.
Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM) made a decision on appointing Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Spain Altay Efendiyev the secretary general of GUAM.
The decision was made as part of the 25th meeting of the GUAM Council of Foreign Ministers in Bratislava.
The GUAM format was established by post-Soviet countries in 1997 at the meeting of the heads of states of the European Union in Strasburg. Uzbekistan joined this format in 1999, but left after four years.
During the first summit of this format in Kiev in 2006, a decision was adopted declaring GUAM an international organization and about its new name, the 'Organization for Democracy and Economic Development - GUAM'.
The Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the GUAM, as part of the 25th Ministerial Council meeting, which took place May 15, 2015 in Bratislava, decided to appoint Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan in Spain Altay Efendiyev to the post of Secretary General of GUAM.
Edited by CN