Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has left for a two-day official visit to Baku

He is scheduled to hold meetings with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Parliament Chairman Murtuz Aleskerov, and Prime Minister Arthur Rasi-zade. Upon completion of the talks between the two leaders, the sides will sign bilateral documents on cooperation in the political, economic and cultural spheres, as well as a Joint Statement of the two Presidents. In particular, Moldova and Azerbaijan are going to conclude an inter-governmental agreement on economic cooperation between the two nations. The document is aimed at enhancing interaction in the fields of investment projects, creation of joint enterprises and financial-industrial groups, cooperation in industry and, in particular, in machine engineering, processing industry, infrastructure development, transport, eTc. An emphasis is going to be placed in the document on interaction in the winemaking field. Azerbaijan is inviting Moldova to joint large-scale programs of cooperation in viticulture, in rehabilitation of vineyards, exchange of technologies, establishment of joint grape growing and wine making enterprises. The sides are expected to discuss also questions of regional cooperation, first and foremost activities in the framework of GUUAM, a regional organization established in 1997 and uniting Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. In 2001, Vladimir Voronin severely criticized it for inefficiency, but later stated that Chisinau is interested in some GUUAM projects, primarily the one on transportation of Caspian oil to Europe via Moldova and Ukraine.