Tbilisi hosted GUAM parliamentary assembly
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Wednesday, December 4
Tbilisi hosted the GUAM parliamentary assembly, the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development on December 2-3. During two days, the participants of the event discussed various issues of cooperation and reviewed the prospects of European integration for GUAM member states.
Parliamentary delegations from Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Poland, Latvia and Estonia were engaged in the session. The sixth assembly of GUAM, which works on economic and democratic development issues, was concluded by an adoption of a summarizing document.
The meeting was opened by Georgian Parliament Speaker Davit Usupashvili who called this event “very important for Georgia.” He said the establishment of GUAM and its activity over the years has been a priority for Georgia. "I am glad that this organization has laid the foundation for close cooperation, not only among member-states, but also among international organizations and friendly countries," he added.
Usupashvili also spoke about the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius. "When we agreed on cooperation in a GUAM format, we agreed that we will move together to a common goal, to democratic stability in the region, but we also agreed that each country can have its unique way to achieve this goal,” stressed the Speaker.
Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze spoke about Georgia's priorities during its presidency in GUAM. She said Georgia did everything to strengthen the cooperation in the regional format during its presidency in GUAM.
"Our priority in GUAM was to strengthen the political cooperation, basic principles such as solidarity and consensus. We could not cope with common challenges and protect our common interests without a strong political will. GUAM's political statements have never been as strong as this year," stated Panjikidze.
The representative of Ukraine did not attend the second day of the session because he returned to Ukraine to attend the country’s emergency parliamentary session. The recent developments in Ukraine were also in focus of the GUAM session. The guests said none of them supports either the government of Ukraine or the opposition, but rather the Ukrainian people.
The sides also talked about the negative role of Russian forces in the Caucasus region and stressed that these forces must be dismissed as soon as possible.
