Deputy Chairman of the Council of Minister and BiH Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdžija hosted a meeting of foreign ministers of the countries of the Western Balkans region which was held on September 23 in New York on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the EU Delegation and other EU member countries.
Minister Lagumdžija told FENA that the meeting in New York will be held in line with the agreement reached at the meeting of foreign ministers of the Western Balkans region on improving cooperation within the Stabilization and Association Process held on July 10, 2014 in Kotor.
He added that top diplomats of the regional countries will talk about the concretization of regional projects, which were identified by the countries of the region as a common interest for stronger economic and political connections, i.e. the implementation of the conclusions recently reached at the Berlin Conference on the Western Balkans, as a preparation for the meeting of ministers of foreign affairs and ministers of economy in October in Belgrade.
“Since the beginning, we are strongly advocating joint regional projects in the fields of energy, infrastructure and prevention and management of natural disasters,” Minister Lagumdžija said.
Specifically, the implementation of projects of Adriatic-Ionian motorway and Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP), projects of regional prevention and management of natural disasters: between BiH, Croatia and Serbia – establishing regional center for alarm and monitoring of floods; between BiH, Croatia and Montenegro – establishment of regional center for reacting in prevention and extinguishing of fire, and building of railroad Nikšić – Trebinje – Čapljina, modernization of railroad from Sarajevo to Belgrade, over Doboj, Tuzla and Zvornik, building interstate bridge over river Sava near Svilaj, and implementation of projects of restoration and modernization of waterway of the River Sava.
“One of the possibilities for strengthening regional cooperation is joint use of diplomatic and consular offices, the so called collocation which is implemented by many European countries based on bilateral and/or multilateral agreements,” Lagumdžija said.
(Source: Fena/ photo dnevno.ba)