Ukraine, Kiev, 4 March / corr. Trend Z. Novosvitski/ Azerbaijan and Georgia have already paid their GUAM membership fees for 2008. Valeriy Chechelashvili, the General-Secretary of GUAM said to Trend .
" Azerbaijan and Georgia have completely fulfilled their financial obligations and Ukraine has partly done so," Chechelashvili said.
The budget of GUAM totals to $650,000 for 2008. The member states all pay equal fees. According to the GUAM financial rules, the member states must pay half of the fee by the end of March and the remaining part by the end of June.
" Azerbaijan and Georgia, were not, in principle, expected to pay their fees simultaneously, but they deemed it was possible and this is a great support to the activities of our organization," Chechelashvili said.
Four post-Soviet republics; Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, established the GUAM format in 1997 during a summit of presidents of European Union countries in Strasburg. In 1999, Uzbekistan joined the organization but left four years later. In 2006, at the first summit of the organization in Kiev a decision was made to announce GUAM as an international organization with a new name; Organization for Democracy and Economic Development - GUAM.