France, Strasbourg, 20 March / corr Trend A.Maharramli / GUAM, a regional organization among Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) and the Council of Europe (CE) intend to discuss jointly issues on fighting terrorism. GUAM representatives were invited to participate in a meeting of CE expert group on combating terrorism due in Istanbul in April.
A decision on cooperation of the two organizations in combating terrorism was adopted in Strasbourg on 19 March in the first consultations between GUAM and the CE. The consultations were held between the CE Ministers Committee Group on Foreign Relations and GUAM countries. GUAM Secretary General Valeri Chechelashvili and representatives of GUAM member-countries will come to Strasburg. Tofik Musayev, the chief of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry International Law and Treaties Department will head the Azerbaijani mission.
Musayev, representative from the Azerbaijan, which co-chairing at the GUAM, offered the CE the cooperation in the sphere of combating terrorism, a well as inter-religious and inter-culture dialogue, youth, ensuring human rights. GUAM Secretary General Valeriy Chechelashvili offered cooperation in the fighting against illegal money laundry.
Jean-Luis Laurens, the head of the CE Directorate for Political Issues, attributed the proposal as interesting and noted the importance of defining of a format and mechanism of cooperation. He noted the importance of expanding the range of issues put for discussions.
The mutual interaction between the CE and GUAM was also considered in a meeting with Zoltan Townber, the head of CE Director for Foreign Affairs in Strasbourg.
In 1997, Four post-Soviet republics: Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, established GUAM format 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.