U.K. Foreign Secretary Hosts Day Two of Western Balkans Summit

EU-Western Balkans Summit (BETAPHOTO/KATARINA SREMCEVIC)

In a Oct. 9 statement, U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper asserted that the security and stability of the Western Balkans is in everyone’s interest and that the world needs to be aware of the “full range of threats” the region is facing, “from Russian efforts to revive ethnic tensions, to vile people-smuggling gangs trading in human lives.”

Cooper is currently hosting a two-day summit on the Western Balkans in Hillsborough Castle, Northern Ireland. The agenda for day two – i.e. Oct. 9 – entails a Foreign Ministers’ Meeting which, the U.K.’s Foreign Office said, will focus on “preserving security and stability in the Western Balkans, boosting growth and trade, and increasing cooperation in the fight against organized immigration crime.”

In addition to the region’s six foreign ministers, the meeting will include ministers or high-level officials from Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Greece, Bulgaria among others.

The two-day summit began on Oct. 8 with a reception held by Foreign Secretary Cooper. It is part of the Berlin Process 2025, an international platform aimed at bringing together leaders of the Western Balkans with other European partners, on Oct. 22 in London.

According to its agenda, the Oct. 9 meeting should involve the unveiling of a new project worth GBP4 million aimed at strengthening “cyber defenses in the region, and share[ing] expertise in countering disinformation and other malign activity from hostile actors.”

Ahead of the sit-down, Cooper will also be announcing a GBP10-million investment “in innovative programs to tackle people smuggling in the Western Balkans and other key regions where international cooperation is essential to curb illegal migration,” the Foreign Office said.

The press release detailed that said funding “will support new projects in the Western Balkans, including law enforcement training in Kosovo, stronger border security and help for potential trafficking victims in Serbia.”

“International cooperation is vital to boosting our economic growth, protecting our national security, and securing our borders. The partnerships we build abroad make us stronger here at home,” Cooper is quoted as saying and adding that helping the Western Balkans combat people smuggling in particular “will have a direct impact on the supply chains and profits of organized immigration crime networks, and reducing the threat that they represent to the UK.”

The location of the summit was chosen for its symbolism: Hillsborough Castle is the site where the governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland signed the Good Friday Agreement – also known as the Belfast Agreement – in 1998, largely ending decades of conflict in Northern Ireland.