Balkan Leaders Urge Better Security Cooperation

Balkans governments officials discussed security concerns in Pristina | Photo: BIRN

Ministers and diplomats from Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Hungary and Bulgaria gathered for two days in Pristina, Kosovo, to discuss matters of shared interest, especially security and migration issues.

The struggle against terrorism and religious radicalisation was among the main topics, along the migration crisis and security in the region.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Isa Mustafa, told the conference that while the number of Kosovo Albanians fighting in Syria and Iraq had fallen, challenges remained.

“From 300 [Kosovo] citizens, the number has decreased to less than 70 [fighting] in Syria and Iraq,” Mustafa said.

The figure remains disputed. Several international and local institutions, including the Kosovo Ministry of Interior, put the number at over 300 just a few months ago.

Referring to a reecent terror scare, Kosovo’s Minister of Interior, Skender Hyseni, denied that that terrorists planned to attack the historic Serbian monastery at Visoki Decani in western Kosovo – and claimed Kosovo has got the issue of Kosovars fighting in Iraq and Syria under control.

“We are among the very few countries that have identified each of those who fought in Syria, [including] those who were killed or who returned to Kosovo,” Hyseni said.

Other Balkan representatives said enhanced cooperation, especially on security matters, was of vital importance for the region and sought increased support from the EU and NATO.

The Hungarian Vice Prime Minister, Laszlo Szabo, said security in the Balkans was of vital importance to Europe’s own security.

While participants also discussed the challenges of the migrant crisis in the region, Mustafa said Kosovo had made progress in addressing its own problem of migrants from Kosovo going to Western Europe to claim asylum.

“From 13,000 asylum seekers [from Kosovo in the EU] last February, the number fell to just 5 people in December,” Mustafa said.

The Vice Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dusko Markovic, said that only real cooperation between Western Balkans countries could guarantee each country’s ability to cope with the newly emerging challenges.

However, Kosovo’s Vice Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, voiced concern that the West was “closing its eyes” to problems in the Balkans.

“The most dangerous path that Western Europe and our NATO allies could take is that of splendid isolation – closing their borders and eyes and leaving the Balkans to fend for itself,” Thaci said.