Adis Ahmetovic (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)
The German Bundestag’s rapporteur for the Western Balkans, Adis Ahmetovic, said that an upcoming visit to Belgrade by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was sending the right signal, and that stability and European perspective were of utmost importance for the Western Balkans right now.
“The visit to Serbia by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is the right signal, in the light of the war in Ukraine, too,” Ahmetovic said for BETA. He recalled that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had criticized Russia’s attack against Ukraine, but that Serbia was also the only European state that had refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow.
“In this particular situation, the stabilization of the region and European perspective for the Western Balkans are of utmost importance,” says Ahmetovic, a Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) representative in the German parliament and a rapporteur for the Western Balkans appointed by Bundestag’s foreign policy committee. As he put it, it is also necessary to “perform targeted work with six states of the region as to development perspectives, with a view to their accession to the European Union.” Ahmetovic also suggested that it was necessary to make more specific the prospect of EU membership, and to support talks to normalize relations between Serbia and Kosovo, in which the Union was taking part.
“Stable peace in the Western Balkans, based on the protection of territorial integrity and the overcoming of ethnic divides, is key to the future of Europe,” Ahmetovic said.
Quoting diplomatic sources, the media reported that Minister Baerbock was expected to visit Belgrade on March 11.
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