Balkans

Cypriot President Dimitri Christofias started an official visit to Greece Saturday. Christofias was received by his Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias at the Athens Presidential Mansion. Christofias, who is also the leader of the Greek Cypriot community, briefed Papoulias on his talks last week with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat …

NATO reiterated that its doors remain opened for Macedonia, but only after a solution to its name dispute with Athens is reached. “There is not shortcut: we made the decision in Bucharest, that we will start accession talks with Skopje immediately after a mutually acceptable solution is found. I encourage …

Serbia’s foreign minister Vuk Jeremic has ordered the immediate withdrawal of Serbia’s ambassador in Podgorica following Montenegro’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with Kosovo. Jeremic asked the ambassador to return to Belgrade for consultations. After much discussion about when the right time is to establish diplomatic relations with Kosovo, Montenegro’s …

Due to a lack of political agreement there haven’t been any reforms Bosnia in the past three years, High International Representative Valentin Inzko says. Those reforms, the Austrian diplomat added, could have made Bosnia-Herzegovina a more functional state. At the meeting of the EU political directors in Madrid, Inzko said …

The Hague Tribunal rejected on Thursday Vojislav Šešelj’s request to hold a phone press conference, SRS official Aleksandar Martinović said. The of the opposition party, on trial at the Hague on charges of war crimes, made the request ahead of the snap local election in the municipality of Odžaci, scheduled …

The chief of the International Civilian Office in Kosovo, Pieter Feith, says a strategy exists for the integration of the northern part of Kosovo. It envisages the forming of the institutions of Kosovo in this part of Kosovo’s territory. After a meeting with Kosovo Premier Hashim Thaci, Feith said that …

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić and his Turkish and Bosnian counterparts Ahmet Davutoglu and Sven Alkalaj will meet today in Belgrade. The meeting will be the fourth regular monthly meeting of the three foreign ministers. 

Macedonian PM Gruevski will discuss on Macedonia’s achievements and perspectives regarding NATO membership as well as present and future reforms of the country in the frameworks of EU integration. PM Gruevski announced that he is not expecting too much of his meeting with Rasmussen, but pointed out

Montenegro and Kosovo have established diplomatic ties with an exchange of letters of foreign ministers, the government in Podgorica announced today. Montenegrin Foreign Minister Milan Roćen said in his letter that he expects the position of the Montenegrin community in Kosovo to be permanently solved, and that as this issue …

Georgia will hold the energy summit, although it is unclear when, Georgian Prime Minister Nika Gilauri said. Batumi hosted an energy conference instead of a planned energy summit Jan. 14. Senior officials from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Ukraine, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Belarus and the EU attended the conference. According …