In a welcome speech at the trilateral summit between BiH, Turkey and Serbia organized at the Çankaya palace in Ankara, the President of Turkey Abdulah Gul repeated that Turkey attaches the utmost importance to bilateral relations between Serbia and BiH in order to establish a lasting peace and stability in the Balkans.
President Abdulah Gul hosted a festive reception for the Chairman of the BIH Presidency Nebojša Radmanović and members of the BiH Presidency Željko Komšić i Bakir Izetbegović and the President of Serbia Tomislav Nikolić at the presidential palace.
Reiterating that Turkey attaches great importance to the bilateral relations between BiH and Serbia for a lasting peace and stability in the Balkans, President Gul recalled that for this purpose he hosted President Nikolić in February and member of the BIH Presidency Bakir Izetbegović in January 2013.
“We saw a significant development in the region from a dark period of the war from 1992-1995 in the Balkans, as well as 1999 in Kosovo. I am glad that leaders of Balkan countries accepted the idea that the agony and negative impact has to be left in the past, and in this way open the path towards mental transformation, from the past to a brighter future. I would like to express gratitude to the Serbian administration for its demonstrated acumen, determination and honesty in this regard’’, he said.
The Turkish President furthermore underlines that constructive steps will serve as a basis for a much closer cooperation between the parties in the Balkans, adding that the process of the trilateral summit, which began in Istanbul in April 2010, was raised to a higher and more advanced level.
Through this process, he said that the current dialogue and cooperation between the sides are consolidated. He thinks that this is a contribution to regional stability and cooperation, which is praised by the international community.
At the official presentation of the topic of the summit “Building a Future Together”, President Gul said that the exchange of opinions on how to continue trilateral cooperation between these three countries in the future would open new horizons.
“The positive atmosphere that we are trying to establish in the Balkans gives us hope that the process of trilateral meetings could cross the stage of institutionalization to ensuring joint projects at the level where the parties could meet to find solutions to the current crisis. In this sense, today we will talk about the efforts of Balkan countries for integration with Euro Atlantic institutions and of the importance of including an economic dimension to the process of the summit. We think that the pillars of Euro Atlantic integration is the most important guarantee to establish a lasting peace, stability, security and prosperity in the entire Balkans’’, he said. This statement was announced on the Internet site of the Office of the Turkish President.
(Source: Fena)
