Eurasia

Serbian PM Mirko Cvetković met in Nicosia today with Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias during a visit “intended to improve relations between the two counties”. Cvetković laid a wreath at the statue of former Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios III.

Turkey says it opposes the candidacy of Austria’s former foreign minister to become the next secretary general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Turkey’s foreign ministry said Saturday it can’t support Ursula Plassnik because she opposes Turkey’s bid to become a full member of the European Union. …

The U.S. Congress representatives will today hold several meetings in the Georgian parliament during their visit to Georgia. A group of the U.S. congressmen consisting of 8 people, who represent the Republican and Democratic parties, is on visit to Tbilisi. They are scheduled to meet with representatives of the Constitutional …

Macedonia’s ruling VMRO DPMNE party has declared victory in Sunday’s general elections, claiming they have won almost half of the seats in the parliament. “The VMRO DPMNE-led coalition has won these elections,” Prime Minister and VMRO DPMNE party leader Nikola Gruevski told supporters late on Sunday.

Political deadlock and economic hardship appear to have steered Moldovans towards the opposition Communists in local elections on Sunday. Communist Igor Dodon is leading the mayoral race in the Moldovan capital Chisinau with around 52 percent of the vote, while incumbent mayor Dorin Chirtoaca holds 43 percent, according to

Albania’s Minister of Education announced in a meeting with his Kosovo counterpart on Friday that both countries would work on producing joint textbooks for first-graders. “We will soon have textbooks on the market for children abroad [outside Albania], based on a common programme,” the Albanian Education Minister, Myqerem Tafaj, said. …

Serbian President Boris Tadić will begin a two-day visit to Brussels on Monday by meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. His office said that Tadić is going to hold a lecture on Serbia’s EU integration at the European Policy Center on Tuesday.

U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Mary Warlick has stated that Washington “strongly supports Serbia in its EU integration”. She also stressed that the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština “is very important and expected to result in great progress in the coming months”.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said he sees positive signs of a breakthrough in a dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, welcoming Azerbaijan’s “determined and optimistic” position on the conflict.

Ratko Mladic’s arrest has provided opportunities for a dialog, which should replace the bloodsheds in the Balkans, said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. “Mladic’s arrest is important because of two reasons. First of all, it is a message to all mass murderers that the world will not put up …