Azerbaijan, Baku, 19 April / Trend corr S. Agayeva/ Azerbaijan offered Bulgaria to join the initiative of Group of GUAM Friends in the European Union. According to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, the statement was made by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov at the meeting with Bulgarian officials in Sofia.
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus called on EU to create group of friends of GUAM at the organization.
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.
At the meetings with Georgi Pirinski, Chairman of the Bulgarian Parliament, and Ivaylo Kalfin, Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, during his official visit to Bulgaria, Mammadyarov said Azerbaijan is interested in the policy of European and Euro-Atlantic integration.
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