Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend S.Agayeva / The Group of GUAM Friends in the European Union will be presented on 23 November in Riga, the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Latvia, Tofig Zulfugarov, reported to Trend by telephone from Riga on 22 November.
The Group of GUAM Friends in the European Union was challenged to be established by the President of Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, in October in the 10th anniversary of 'Organization for Democracy and Economic Development - GUAM' and at the meeting of the Presidents of Lithuania, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Georgia in Vilnius during the conference on energy security. The President of Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, made this initiative to assist GUAM countries in integration into Europe.
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 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.
The Group of GUAM Friends will be presented within high-level international conference entitled The Baltic States and the EU Neighbourhood Policy which will take place in Riga on 23 November, the Ambassador said.
"We hope that the newly established organization will assist in realizing concrete programs of GUAM and activate relations of GUAM member countries with the EU countries," the Ambassador said.
The diplomat said that in the presentation and conference, Azerbaijan will be represented by the Foreign Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov. Within the conference, the Minister will hold several meetings with the senior officials of the EU and other conference participants.
Taking part in the conference will be more than 200 prominent politicians and experts from approximately 30 countries around the world. Already confirmed as participating in the conference are the Speakers of all three Baltic state parliaments and the Estonian Foreign Minister. Among guests at the conference will be the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. Armenia, Georgia, Belarus and Moldova will be represented at the level of Deputy Foreign Ministers
Also attending the conference will be the Vice-President of the European Parliament Diana Wallis, the EU Special Envoy for the South Caucasus, Peter Semneby, and the Director of the European Neighbourhood Policy Coordination, European Commission, Rutger Wissels.