Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the European Union (EU) member states met yesterday in Brussels at a regular meeting ahead of the leaders’ summit on May 30th and 31st. The focus of the meeting was the impact of Russia and the war in Ukraine on the Western Balkans and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
As announced by the Council of the EU, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the six Western Balkan countries joined the EU foreign ministers at a working lunch. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Bisera Turkovic, was present from BiH.
They discussed the development of relations between the countries of the region, common security, and investments. Given that the war in Ukraine is the leading topic causing the crisis in the world, the leaders of the EU countries talked with the Western Balkan leaders about the support for this area to fight Russian influences.
In this regard, the European External Action Service drafted a strategic document that was distributed to member states before the meeting, and it was presented yesterday. It contains ways for EU’s help and support to the resilience of the Western Balkans to Russian influence and addressing the consequences of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
”The Western Balkans have been hit hard, from the economic, political, diplomatic, communications, and security sectors. We have to work on their resilience because they are all on our side. They all rejected Russian aggression and are our partners on that issue,” they said from the EU Council.
It was also stated that the heads of diplomacy of the Western Balkan countries presented the specific problems of each country and the ways in which they believe that BiH can be helped.
Over the weekend, the Group of Seven (G7) Ministers of Foreign Affairs said they would not tolerate Republika Srpska’s (RS) secessionist policies, which they said threatened the future of BiH and the stability of the region, Klix.ba writes
E.Dz.
