Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili arrived today in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, where he met the presidents of other GUAM member states.

"GUAM is a bridge between our Soviet past and our European future. Ten years ago, when this organization was founded, no one took it seriously. But now it is an international alliance of great significance, one which works together with the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance," Saakashvili said in his speech at the event.

Later on, the Georgian president took part in an energy security summit entitled "Responsible Energy for Responsible Partners". The presidents of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Poland and Lithuania discussed the issue of forming a new energy corridor to transport Kazakh and Azerbaijani oil to Europe through Georgia, on to Ukraine, Poland and other European countries while bypassing Russia. During the summit the six countries' energy ministers signed a joint declaration on forming a group to look into the technical details of building the energy corridor.

"The cooperation among these six countries has shown that we are capable of working together and implementing joint projects. Many things have changed in the energy sphere since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Three of the six countries taking part in this conference are already European Union members. Georgia is consistently taking steps towards achieving its goal of membership of that alliance. In order for our country to achieve the goal it has set out, we need the support of the other countries represented here. We are a small country, but one that has great potential to act as a transit country for energy resources and one that will spare no efforts to ensure its energy independence," Saakashvili said.

Communications Office
of the President of Georgia