Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 8 / Trend S. Agayeva /
Pacific Alliance is interested in cooperation with GUAM.
"Pacific Alliance, uniting five big countries of the Pacific Basin - Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Costa Rica is interested in cooperation with the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development," GUAM Secretary General Valery Chechelashvili told Trend on Friday.
According to him, at present, the opportunities for joint cooperation are being examined.
"The basis of such cooperation as GUAM and the Pacific Alliance are specific projects, in particular the free trade zone and the dialogue in this sphere can be useful to both organizations," Secretary General stressed.
According to Chechelashvili, Columbian Foreign Minister expressed an interest in this format of cooperation during the talks with her Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov within her recent visit to Baku. This has been confirmed in other meetings.
The first ministerial meeting of GUAM member-states and the Pacific Alliance will be held in New York in late September within the UN General Assembly session, Secretary General added.
At present, the sides are preparing for this meeting.
Pacific Alliance is a trading bloc, which includes such Latin American countries as Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia. Costa Rica has become a full member after the ratification of a free trade agreement with Colombia.
A constitutive summit of Pacific Alliance including Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Chile was held in the Chilean city of Antofagasta on June 6, 2012. The presidents of all four countries attended the meeting. The foreign ministers of Costa Rica, Canada and Panama participated in the summit as observers. The Spanish king was invited for the summit as a guest of honor.
According to the World Trade Organization, Pacific Alliance member-states export the goods worth $445 billion (2010).
GUAM was established by several post-Soviet countries in 1997 during the EU presidential summit in Strasbourg. In 1999, Uzbekistan joined the organization and left four years later. A decision was made to rename GUAM 'The Organization for Democracy and Economic Development - GUAM', at the body's first summit in Kiev in 2006.
