GUAM – United States Joint Statement (New York, September 26, 2012)

On September 26, 2012, in New York, the 18th meeting of the GUAM Council of Ministers for Foreign Affairs with the United States of America took place within the framework of the 67th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The GUAM Side was represented by the following: Mr. Elmar Mammadyarov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan (GUAM Presidency); Mr. Grigol Vashadze, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia; Mr. Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine; Mr. Igor Munteanu, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Moldova in the United States of America and Mr. Valeri Chechelashivili, GUAM Secretary General. The US Side was represented by Mr. Daniel Russell, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs.

The Parties assessed their cooperation following the last GUAM-USA Ministerial meeting, held in New York on September 24, 2010, and exchanged views on issues of mutual interest.

Both Parties emphasised the significance of the traditional and well-institutionalised dialogue that has been taking place since the establishment of full-fledged regional cooperation through the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development – GUAM.

The Parties noted the highly important, role of the projects, supported by the United States and jointly implemented with other international organisations and structures, inter alia, to combat money-laundering, illegal drugs trafficking (both jointly with UNODC) and corruption (jointly with OECD/ACN). An infrastructure extension project for the GUAM Virtual Center on Combating Terrorism, Organized Crime, Drug Trafficking and Other Dangerous Types of Crime (VLEC) has been developed, and a Cryptographic Protection System within VLEC is currently being established. The GUAM Party expressed its gratitude to the Government of the United States for the important assistance provided to GUAM, both in financial and technical terms.

The time and venue of next GUAM-USA meeting will be agreed through diplomatic channels.