Diplomatic Diary: Serbian defense minister visits Kosovo

06/05/2008

Serbia's Dragan Sutanovac urged Kosovo voters to choose pro-Western candidates. Also this week: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro sign a cross-border co-operation agreement.

Serbian Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac was in Gracanica on Monday (May 5th). [Laura Hasani]

Serbian Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac was in the Serb-populated town of Gracanica, just south of Pristina, on Monday (May 5th). Sutanovic, a senior whip in President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party, delivered humanitarian aid to the town, and urged the Serbs in Kosovo to vote for pro-Western candidates in Serbia's parliamentary and local elections on Sunday. Sutanovac says Serbia's ability to help the Serb minority in Kosovo will be weakened if voters do not choose candidates who support closer ties with the EU.

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Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia and Montenegro signed a cross-border co-operation deal Monday (May 5th). The document was initialled during a meeting of the foreign ministers of the three countries in Dubrovnik, southern Croatia. It paves the way for co-operation in case of natural disasters, the joint management of natural resources and other activities of mutual interest for the three countries.

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Turkey continues to support Macedonia's efforts to become member of NATO, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Sunday (May 4th) during his visit to Skopje, where he met with his Macedonian counterpart Branko Crvenkovski. The two agreed to work to deepen economic ties and increase Turkish investment in Macedonia. An agreement on co-operation in preventing and responding to natural disasters was also signed.

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US Assistant Secretary of State Matthew J. Bryza announced on Saturday (May 3rd) that he plans to visit Cyprus within the next two weeks, in order to evaluate the work of the experts and technical commissions tasked with preparing new talks on the future of the divided island. In March, newly-elected Cypriot President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat met and agreed to re-launch negotiations.

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Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou met on Thursday (May 1st) with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin. They discussed Cyprus, the situation within the EU, and the bloc's relations with Turkey, Russia and Serbia.

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Ruling and opposition MPs were part of an Albanian delegation that visited the United States at the invitation of the foreign policy committee within the US State Department. The delegation was headed by Democratic Party (DP) member Prec Zogaj, who chairs parliament's foreign policy committee, and by the committee's deputy chairman, Socialist Party deputy Arte Dade. During the visit, the Albanian lawmakers met with National Security Council Director for Europe and NATO Toby Bradley.

(Various sources 29/04/08-06/05/08)