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The leaders of the Western Balkans during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, confirmed that they want to strengthen bilateral co-operation, especially with Montenegro.
Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic is attending Davos meetings for the first time as the country’s prime minister. He has also held separate meetings with all Western Balkan leaders.
A joint meeting of the leaders took place in the panel entitled: “Diplomacy Dialogue for the Western Balkans”, which was held behind closed doors on 25 May.
As announced by the Office of the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, this panel aimed to help promote regional cooperation and build new international partnerships.
The Government of Montenegro said that the meeting discussed how the Government and business can work together to strengthen the stability of the region and secure its ties with key partners at a time when geopolitical risk is growing.
In addition to Kurti and Abazovic, the panel was attended by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, the President of Northern Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, the EU Special Representative for Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak and others.
Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania were not present at the panel. The forum in Davos is being held from May 23 to 26, after a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
So far, no bilateral meeting has been reported between Kurti and Vucic.
Meanwhile, on May 24, Kurti and Abazovic, during a meeting in Davos, agreed that in the fall, the governments of the two countries will hold a joint meeting.
“I congratulated him on his new post as Prime Minister of Montenegro. We discussed the cooperation and the intention to further increase development and investment, especially in the necessary infrastructure for the connections Deçan-Plava and Peja-Rozhaja “, wrote Kurti on Twitter.
Abozovic said the two leaders had pledged to work on developing infrastructure projects that would improve ties between the two countries and contribute to economic development.
On the other hand, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic invited Abazovic to join the next meeting of the regional initiative “Open Balkans”, to be held in Ohrid, Northern Macedonia.
“Another great opportunity to discuss bilateral issues with Dritan Abazovic during the World Economic Forum, but also to invite him once again to join us in the meeting of the ‘Open Balkans’ initiative in Ohrid,” Vucic said through a Instagram post.
The “Open Balkans” initiative is a continuation of the Balkan “mini-Schengen”, presented in Novi Sad, Serbia on October 10, 2019, by the leaders of Serbia, Northern Macedonia and Albania.
When the “Open Balkans” initiative was introduced, then Montenegro with the Government of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), refused to participate in this regional initiative.
However, the new Prime Minister, Dritan Abazovic, supports the concept of this initiative. Abazovic expressed support for the initiative during an interview with Klan Kosova on May 11th.
Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina do not support this initiative.
After meeting with the Serbian president, Abazovic said his country is making efforts to promote a policy of regional co-operation, reconciliation, coexistence and better economic cohesion in the Western Balkans.
“Relations with Serbia are a priority – we are ready for intensive cooperation in all areas of common interest,” Abazovic wrote on his Twitter account.
Meanwhile, the President of Northern Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, talked with Abazovic about the economic potentials and opportunities for deepening relations between the two countries.
“Close cooperation within NATO, which we will extend to the EU integration process, as a common strategic goal,” Pendarovski said in a Twitter post.
The Macedonian President also held talks with the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vuçi..
In a meeting with the Serbian president, the two leaders welcomed the decision of the Serbian Orthodox Church to recognize the Autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church.
Otherwise, the Russian occupation of Ukraine is the focus of the Davos forum, which began on Monday with a speech via video link of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He said Russia had carried out almost 1,500 missile strikes and more than 3,000 airstrikes against Ukraine in the first three months of the war.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, also mentioned Ukraine during his stay in Davos. During a visit to the Russian House, the site used by the Russian delegation in Davos has been turned into a “Russian House of War Crimes” by Ukrainian artists.
“The shocking Russian war crimes house in Davos is a living monument to how things are changing so quickly: from the playground of Russian diplomats / oligarchs to an exhibition of the loss, grief and great pain that Ukraine is suffering. “It is good to see a united world against the genocidal regime of Russia.”
On the second day of the Forum, Tuesday in Davos, the leaders of several European countries and the head of NATO agreed that strengthening the weapons system and arming Ukraine is of key importance during the Russian occupation.
At the panel on security in Europe, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the best way to support Ukraine is to provide weapons, which the Allies are doing a lot in this regard. He reiterated, however, that while supporting Ukraine, NATO would not be part of the conflict.
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