Azerbaijan, Baku, 4 March / corr. Trend S. Agayeva/ The Czech Republic as a country presiding over the Vishegradsk Group shows a great interest in cooperation within the framework of GUAM.
"The Vishegradsk Group has rich international experience and GUAM is interested in the development of cooperation with the Group and Azerbaijan and Czech Republic, as presiding countries in these organizations, have good opportunities for cooperation," Tahir Tagizadeh, the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Czech Republic said to Trend by telephone from Prague on 4 March.
Four post-Soviet republics: Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, established the GUAM format in 1997 during a summit of the 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.
The Vishegradsk Group was founded in February 1991 to provide mutual help among its three members, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia while integrating into European and Euro-Atlantic structures. The Vishegradsk Group has included four members since the collapse of Czechoslovakia.
The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Czech Republic have expressed their interest in cooperation in Madrid during the meeting of the Council of Ministers of OSCE and discussed the prospects of cooperation.
A number of joint events are expected to be held within the framework of cooperation. The Vishegradsk Group will be presented in Azerbaijan and a GUAM national coordinators meeting will be held in Baku with the participation of representatives from Czech Republic, the ambassador said. According to the ambassador, the meeting in GUAM-Czech Republic format on the level of national coordinators is expected to be held in mid-2008.
"On one hand, the Czech Republic is also interested in cooperation within the framework of Friendship Group of GUAM in the European Union that was initiated by the President of Lithuania," Tagizadeh said.