Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin has fiercely criticized former High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina Paddy Ashdown for warning against changes to borders in the Balkans.
“How was that not dangerous when Yugoslavia was being broken up,” Vulin told TV Pink on Thursday.
More than 10,000 people are still listed as missing in the wars in the former Yugoslavia, an organization of the families of missing persons said on Tuesday.
A total of 10,281 people are still listed as missing and their fate is unknown, including a little more than 3,600 Serbs, the Coordination of Serb Associations of Families of the missing and killed in the former Yugoslavia said.
The presidents of Serbia and Kosovo are main advocates of the separation between Pristina and Belgrade, Shkëlzen Maliqi, Kosovo ’s political analyst tells the Belgrade Danas daily on Monday, warning about possible effects on Bosnia.
Speaking about the deals between Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci and about a final stage of the Belgrade – Pristina dialogue, Maliqi, also a philosopher and an art critic, said it was interesting to what extent the two had similar stands.
President Aleksandar Vucic met on Wednesday in Belgrade with Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) Presidency Member Mladen Ivanic.
According to a press release from Vucic's office, during the conversation, he "stressed the need to strengthen political relations and economic cooperation."
The Enlargement Strategy, entitled “Credible Perspective of Enlargement to the Western Balkans”, will be presented on 6 February during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Following of the adoption of the official text of the document by the College of Commissioners, the Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, will present a Strategy before the members of the European Parliament when it will be also publicly disclosed.
US expert on the Balkans Daniel Serwer has commented on the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) once again listing the Balkans as a stability problem.
Serwer spoke for the N1 broadcaster in Bosnia-Herzegovina, after the US NGO published its "Preventive Priorities Survey 2017."
Serwer said that he did not think the document should make people in the Balkans "more afraid than they already are."
Serbia does not want to unify with the Republika Srpska (RS), the Belgrade-based daily Danas says was told by President Aleksandar Vucic's cabinet.
Vucic's cabinet said this when asked about RS President Milorad Dodik's map, drawn during his interview for DW, which showed his vision of the map of the Western Balkans.
In it, the Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina joins Serbia, together with the north of a partitioned Kosovo.
Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said that the policy of preserving territorial integrity, represented by Serbia, is an obstacle to the separation of Republika Srpska.
"If Serbia, in that moment, has said that it was OK, when Kosovo seceded, we would have been already separated," Dodik said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
If Belgrade decides to recognize Kosovo's independence, Dodik says, he would not object, but it would mean that the Republika Srpska could be independent.
Bakir Izetbegovic saying that he hopes Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) will recognize Kosovo represented "a dangerous provocation."
This is according to former US Ambassador to Serbia William Montgomery.
Montgomery added that he "hoped the international community will react strongly and condemn this statement."
A growing political crisis in Albania, fears over foreigners buying up land in Serbia and problems of youth radicalisation are among the top stories on Balkan Insight this week.
Hotting Up
The political scene in Albania seems to be getting more and more heated by the day. No accident, given that Parliamentary elections are only two months away, prior to which the country’s Parliament will need to elect a new President.