President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic and Greek Prime Minister Kyroys Mitsotakis agreed in New York that two nations had a sincere friendship and discussed bilateral relations, the situation in the region and Belgrade’s road to the European Union, the Beta news agency reported on Tuesday.

Vucic asked Mitsotakis not to change the Greek stand towards Kosovo independence, a statement from the President’s office said.

The Washington John Hopkins University’s panel “Western Balkans (WB): Managing the Challenges” dealt with the regional leaders’ real readiness to get closer to the West, adding it should more clearly criticise the WB’s regimes, the Voice of America (VOA) reported on Thursday, as carried by the FoNet news agency.

Donald Trump, the US President, told Zoran Zaev, North Macedonia's Prime Minister, that his deal with Greece on the country’s new name was the greatest achievement in the Balkans since the 1995 Dayton Agreement which ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Beta news agency reported.

In a symbolic gesture, the Greek Government will most probably be the first country to ratify North Macedonia’s NATO accession protocol. Beta agency is reporting this on Wednesday, citing EURACTIV.

The plan is to do this by February 8, sources close to the issue told the Brussels-based website.

Serbian President and ruling SNS leader Aleksandar Vucic has met with the leader of the Greek opposition party New Democracy, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. SNS officials Jadranka Joksimovic, Marko Djuric and Vladimir Orlic were also present at the meeting in the premises of the SNS in Belgrade.

Vucic thanked Mitsotakis for his support and for the confirmation that Greece's position on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija will not change.

Greece does not recognize the unilateral proclamation of independence made by ethnic Albanians in 2008.

The forthcoming European Union Summit on Western Balkans in Sofia will be an incentive to linkage and enlargement, but the potential candidate countries still face a number of obstacles, a conference in Belgrade has been told on Monday.

The issue of enlargement was back on the EU’s agenda thanks to the Bulgarian presidency over the block, the country’s envoy to Belgrade Radko Vlajkov told the “EU Summit – Western Balkans: Where is the enlargement there?” conference.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said in Belgrade on Wednesday that his country will not recognize Kosovo.

Kotzias explained that the trade office of Kosovo in Athnes will not be a diplomatic office.

"That's neither been agreed, nor envisaged," he told a joint news conference with Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic.

In an interview with the public broadcaster in the province of Vojvodina (RTV), cited by the Beta agency, Dacic said the possibility of Serbia accepting Kosovo's UN membership was a mirage.

EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn says 2025 is "a realistic goal for a new wave of (EU) enlargement.)

Serbia and Montenegro have currently "progressed the farthest" toward that goal - but that does not mean that the two countries will definitely be the first to "cross the finish line," Hahn told Austria's APA agency.

"There is still much to do," he said.

Daily Blic reports that Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos said that Albania undermines its own process of joining the European Union with "attitudes of international opportunism, as seen in relations between Tirana and Pristina," and said that Greece would not remain with "folded hands" before such actions.

Pavlopoulos sent a message to Albania from Corfu Island, where he attended a commemoration in honour of the first governor of modern Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias, ANA reports.