17 minutes agoOpen Balkans: Hungary, Turkey to Attend Belgrade Summit
Periskopi(4 years ago)
(4 years ago)Officials from Hungary and Turkey will also attend the upcoming summit of the Open Balkans initiative, held on September 2nd in Belgrade, along with organisers. According to the Serbian presidency, the leaders of the countries that have established this initiative, Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski, will [...]
According to the Serbian presidency, the leaders of the countries that have established this initiative, Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq, Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama and Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski, will host Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlus Cavusoglu.
Even at the last meeting of this initiative, held in Ohrid, will be Montenegro's prime minister, Dritan Abazovic and the chairman of the Council of Ministers in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the ranks of the Serb community, Zoran Tegeltija.
The “Open Balkans initiative” is the continuation of the “Men-Sengen” Balkan initiative, presented in Novi Sad of Serbia on 10 October 2019 by leaders of Serbia, Northern Macedonia and Albania.
Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro are not part of it.
At the next summit, the signing of several bilateral agreements is expected.
According to the Serbian presidency, leaders are expected to meet with representatives of institutions dealing with attracting investments and crisis groups for food and energy supplies.
From Bosnia's tripartite presidency leader Sefik Xhaferovic's cabinet, they have confirmed to Radio Free Europe that Tegeltija has not confirmed the participation of the Bosnian presidency.
Bosnia and Herzegovina's presidence has no stance on joining the Balkans Open Initiative, nor has the chairman of the Council of Ministers provided details concerning his participation in Belgrade”, Dzaferovic's cabinet has said.
Tegeltija herself has said in Ohrid that “Bosnia and Herzegovina has no consensus for the Open Balkans”.
“Arsyet (for lack of consensus) stems from prejudice over who has proposed the initiative, who will benefit, is the replacement for the European Union, but it also relates to political influences. I'm here because I know that Bosnia's business community supports Open Balkans, he said.
The Open Balkans are said to be aiming to enable free movement of people, goods and services in the Western Balkans region.
So far several agreements have been signed that learn to facilitate movement among states.
The European Union and the United States have supported this initiative, although they have reiterated that to succeed, all states must be involved. / REL/
