THE COMMUNITY OF DEMOCRACIES HAS TO BE MORE RESULT-ORIENTED, LITHUANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS
Lithuania will aim to achieve that the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Community of Democracies next summer in Vilnius would become a turning point in further successful activity of the organization, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis said on 17 November at the meeting of the Convening Group of the Community of Democracies in Washington, D.C. According to the Minister, it is important for the Community of Democracies that is currently chaired by Lithuania to become a result-oriented community, which deals with real problems of democracy. “We want the 2011 meeting in Vilnius to focus on the content and not the form,” Minister A.Ažubalis said.The Minister acquainted members of the Convening Group of the Community of Democracies with the topics of the meeting that is planned in Vilnius: the civil society, strengthening of women’s role and support for new democracies, youth involvement and strengthening of parliamentarism. According to the head of Lithuanian diplomacy, it is very important to strengthen the core of the Community of Democracies by inviting new countries to join its activities.
Currently, the Community of Democracies is comprised of over 100 democracies and democratizing countries. The Community of Democracies is an intergovernmental structure, which aims to strengthen democratic norms and institutions globally. In July 2009, Lithuania took over the Presidency of the Community of Democracies for a two-year period.The Minister also informed the participants of the meeting about the preparations for a high-level meeting on gender equality, which would be held at the same time as the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Community of Democracies in Vilnius in the summer of 2011.
The meeting of the Convening Group of the Community of Democracies in Washington, D.C., was attended by representatives from seventeen countries, the Secretariat and observers from non-governmental organizations.
For more information about Lithuania’s presidency of the Community of Democracies, please see: www.mfa.lt/cod
