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The next meeting of the Open Balkans initiative is being held in Ohrid, Northern Macedonia. The meeting of the leaders of Albania, Serbia and Northern Macedonia will be joined in the capacity of observers by the Prime Minister of Montenegro and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The conference is expected to be attended by the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, while the US envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, will address it via video message.
The signing of four cooperation agreements for the fight against tax evasion, recognition of higher education diplomas, cultural cooperation and cooperation in the field of tourism is expected on Wednesday.
The initiative, according to its organizers, aims to establish the freedom of movement of people, goods, capital and services in the region.
But Kosovo refuses to join the initiative in the first place because of Serbia’s approach, which does not recognize its independence. The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, rejected the invitation of the Macedonian Prime Minister, Dimitar Kovacevski, to attend the meeting. He wrote in a letter that Kosovo is committed to the Berlin Process, which was approved by the six Western Balkan countries at the Sofia summit in 2020 and supported by the European Union. Prime Minister Kurti further stressed that “Kosovo and Northern Macedonia must work together to prevent Serbia from promoting its Russian and Chinese interests in the region, and that it consistently denies Kosovo’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and blocks the possibilities of equality for the citizens of Kosovo ”.
Serbia, which represents the country and the largest market in this initiative, maintains strong ties with Russia and China. It is the only country in the Balkan region that has so far refused to join sanctions against Moscow over its aggression in Ukraine. A day earlier, Serbia’s three neighbors, Montenegro, northern Macedonia and Bulgaria, forced the cancellation of a Russian foreign minister’s visit to Belgrade, barring his plane from passing through their airspace.
The Russian foreign minister blamed the West for canceling the visit, stressing that no one would be able to destroy Russia’s relations with Serbia.
“They probably did not want us to express support for Belgrade’s initiative to implement the Open Balkans project in the interest of healthier and stronger relations between all countries in the region,” the Russian minister said on Monday.
US analyst Janusz Bugajski said the Kremlin sees the “Open Balkans” as a useful tool for overthrowing and dividing Europe. “Pro-Western governments should abandon the scheme and not pursue the Moscow-Belgrade agenda,” he wrote on social media.
Analyst Edward Jospeh wrote that just as (Vladimir) Putin should be thanked for the resurgence of NATO, one should praise Sergey Lavrov “who gave the kiss of death today to the Open Balkans”. “This idea of the Trump administration pushes forward the agenda of Russia’s strategic partner in the region, Serbia, under Aleksandar Vucic.”
The initiative, originally known as the “Balkan Mini-Schengen”, changed its name to the “Open Balkans” in July last year. Some analysts estimate that Serbia will benefit most from this initiative, “because there will be access to the sea” (through Albanian ports) and being several times more economically strong will expand its products in the markets of neighboring countries, while local producers and traders from Albania and Northern Macedonia will face price competition and consequently additional challenges in their work.
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