Convening Group

The core of the Community of Democracies is the Convening Group. It is the group’s initiatives that lead to activities aimed at supporting democratic processes in individual countries. The activities consist of organization of seminars, trainings for local elites, organization of consultations in individual countries’ capitals, issuing common statements, working out stances on issues important to the international community, and sending expert missions to individual countries. CD governments meet, at a minimum, every two years during a Ministerial Conference, usually at the level of Foreign Minister. In the past those meetings were held in Warsaw, Seoul, Santiago de Chile, Bamako and Lisbon. In 2011, Lithuania will hold the Community's 6th Ministerial in Vilnius, its capitol. Lithuania was handed the chairmanship of the CD in July, 2009.

Members of the Convening Group:

• Cape Verde
• Chile
• Czech Republic
• El Salvador
• India
• Italy
• Lithuania
• Mali
• Mexico
• Mongolia
• Morocco
• Philippines
• Poland
• Portugal
• South Africa
• South Korea
• United States