Georgia, Tbilisi, Jan. 2 / Trend N. Kirtzkhalia /
Georgia officially started chairing GUAM on January 1, 2013.
Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said that the country assumed the chairmanship in the international organisation at a meeting of the GUAM Council of Foreign Ministers, which was held in Dublin within the OSCE Ministerial Council on Dec. 7, 2012. Chairmanship in GUAM passed from Azerbaijan to Georgia.
"Georgia will try to expand the organisation during its presidency," she said. "It is expected that South Korea will become a partner-country. We plan to expand relations not only at the level of Foreign Ministers, but also at the level of ministries and parliamentary groups."
GUAM was established by the post-Soviet countries in 1997 during the EU presidential summit at Strasbourg. In 1999, Uzbekistan joined the organisation and left four years later. A decision was made to rename GUAM as an international organisation called 'Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development - GUAM', at the body's first summit in Kiev in 2006.