UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will meet with Balkan foreign ministers as the UK looks to persuade international allies to “protect hard-won peace” in a region where tensions have grown increasingly fraught. After chairing a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Liverpool, Truss will on Monday enter talks with counterparts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
The discussions come after the chief international representative in Bosnia, German diplomat Christian Schmidt, warned that the 1995 peace deal that stopped the country’s bloody civil war could unravel. Bosnian Serb separatist threats have fuelled tensions in the region, with concerns also highlighted over Russian involvement.
Mr Schmidt has said the Balkan nation could break up if the international community does not curb threatened divisive actions by Bosnian Serb leader and presidency member Milorad Dodik, who has tacit support from Russia and Serbia. Speaking ahead of Monday’s meetings, Ms Truss said: “The UK is committed to the western Balkans and to the defence and promotion of freedom and democracy in the region.” “As I bring together the foreign ministers of the six countries in the region to London, as well as representatives from the European Union and the United States, tensions are high and the international community must act to protect hard-won peace.”
“Boosting economic ties with the region is a vital way to create jobs and wealth, ensure stability and support freedom.” The current situation in the Balkans was discussed at the G7 foreign ministerial meeting at the Museum of Liverpool over the weekend, with the UK looking to play a role in establishing stability. The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) talked up Britain’s previous role in hosting the Western Balkans Summit in 2018. At the gathering three years ago, leaders of the six countries made commitments in a series of joint declarations on regional co-operation and good neighbourly relations, war crimes, and missing persons in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
Officials said Monday’s talks would seek to reaffirm the UK’s commitment to the Berlin Process, with Ms Truss expected to urge political leaders in the region to reject hate speech, condemn glorification of the perpetrators of genocide and war crimes, and to respect the verdicts of international and domestic courts. It comes as MPs, in a Commons debate earlier this month, said Britain must be prepared to send its troops back to Bosnia in order to save lives amid fears over a conflict erupting. Conservative MP Bob Stewart, a former United Nations commander who led peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, stressed the need to prevent fighting between communities in the country. Party colleague Sir Bernard Jenkin warned Russia is “stoking the ethnic tensions” and encouraging the separatists as President Vladimir Putin wants to worsen western Europe’s refugee crisis.
Source: MIA
