Azerbaijan, Baku / Тrend corr S. Aghayeva / The next meeting of the Foreign Ministries of the member-countries to the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development - GUAM will take place in Madrid on 28 to 29 November. According to the Secretariat of the organization, the Ministers will meet within the framework of participation in the annual meeting of OSCE countries' Foreign Ministers to take place in the capital of Spain this year.
The agenda of the GUAM meeting to involve Georgia, Ukrainian, Azerbaijani, and Moldovan Foreign Ministers will include the draft agreement on privileges and immunities of the organization. The Ministers will explore the issues regarding intensification of intra-state ratification of the GUAM Charter.
The meeting to be also attended by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, will discuss work commencing of GUAM Secretariat.
As an alternative to CIS the four post-Soviet republics Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, established the GUAM format in 1997 during the summit of the presidents of the European Union countries in Strasbourg. In 1999, Uzbekistan joined the organization and left it in 4 years. In 2006, at the first summit of the organization in Kiev it was decided to announce GUAM an international organization with a new name of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development - GUAM.