GUAM summit, which will be held in Batumi on 1 July, "will evaluate the cooperation process amongst the organization member-countries and to define the prospectus of development of cooperation for next year". This was said by Valeriy Chechelashvili, GUAM Secretary General, to journalists.
Chechelashvili said that Georgia would assume the responsibility from Azerbaijan to chair the organization until June 2009, ITAR-TASS reported. "GUAM Secretariat and Georgia will attempt to introduce additional impulse into the regional cooperation within framework of GUAM," Chechelashvili stated.
GUAM summit will be held under the slogan 'GUAM unites the east of Europe'. According to the Georgian Foreign Ministry, alongside with heads of the organization country-members, 25 delegates including Lekh Kachinski Polish President, representatives from the United States Department of State, Foreign Minister of Czechia will attend in the summit. A range of documents, in particular the Declaration of Batumi summit, Communiqué, GUAM Declaration to use transport and transit potential, documents on cooperation of customs and law enforcement services, program regarding Georgian chairmanship in GUAM and others will be signed in the summit.
On 30 June, GUAM Foreign Ministers will meet in Batumi.
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.