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Macedonia Boycotts Sofia Meet Over Balkan Borders
‘Macedonia is a region that overlaps three countries:
SOFIA, July 7 (Reuters) - Balkan countries, winding up a two-day conference aimed at boosting cooperation, pledged on Sunday to become better neighbours but their bland rhetoric could not hide the tensions that still bedevil the region. Ministers hailed the gathering as the symbolic start of a new era for the troubled Balkan peninsula and unanimously approved a "Sofia Declaration" that calls for a strengthening of economic and security ties.
But Macedonia's refusal to take part due to a long-running dispute with Greece over its name, along with Albanian misgivings about events in Serbia's province of Kosovo, cast a shadow over an otherwise deftly orchestrated meeting. "This is the point of no-return. Balkan cooperation is here to stay," said Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos. He told fellow delegates that the end of the Cold War, which divided the region into hostile camps, and the return of peace to former Yugoslavia provided a historic opportunity to overcome deeply-engrained fears and to rebuild trust.
"There should be no shame attached to being Balkan. It is the centre of European civilisation," Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic told a final news conference, referring to the region's classical and Byzantine heritage.
Participants reiterated their support for the Dayton peace agreement in Bosnia and said they were keen to contribute to the country's post-war reconstruction. "Healing the wounds of Bosnia will help bring the region together," said the conference's host and chairman, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski.
Carl Bildt, the international community's High Representative for Bosnia, said building cooperation between the countries of the region would have a positive impact on the peace process within Bosnia. But the Balkans' problems are not confined to Bosnia.
Nominal NATO allies Turkey and Greece nearly came to blows this year over the ownership of islets in the Aegean and tensions remain high between the historic foes. Local media often speculate about the formation of an Eastern Orthodox axis uniting Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, possibly against a Turkish-led Islamic grouping including Albania and Bosnia with tacit U.S. backing.
In Sofia on Saturday Russia's deputy foreign minister, Nikolai Afanasievsky, reiterated Moscow's fierce opposition to NATO expansion into eastern Europe, including the Balkans -- the continent's traditional tinderbox. Albania's deputy foreign minister Arian Starova said he regretted that the Sofia Declaration failed to mention the problems of Kosovo, where the Serbian authorities have denied the ethnic Albanian majority basic freedoms.
The Macedonian delegation to the conference pulled out at the last minute after efforts to reach a compromise over its name broke down. Greece objects to the name Macedonia, which it says implies territorial claims on its own northern province of that name, and insists on use of the U.N. appelation "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM). "(But) there is no policy of exclusion or of trying to sour relations," Greece's Pangalos told the news conference.
"Macedonia is a region that overlaps three countries -- Greece, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia -- and we need to find a name that won't create confusion," he said. Delegates said they hoped Macedonia would agree to attend next year's pan-Balkan foreign ministers' meeting in Athens. Ministers of Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey and rump Yugoslavia attended the meeting. Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and Hungary sent observers. The Contact Group countries for ex-Yugoslavia -- the United States, Russia, Germany, Britain and France -- were also represented. |
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