The New Balkans

Summit of Presidents of States and Governments of Countries of South-East Europe, held in Skoplje on October 25, had an informal character. Despite this fact many believe, its participants perhaps the most, that it has laid the foundations of a new Balkan architecture.

AIM Skoplje, October 26, 2000

An informal meeting of the heads of states and governments of countries, which are in the new political geography called the "West Balkans", was held in the prestigious hotel "Aleksandar Palace" in the capital of Macedonia. Presidents of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Vojislav Kostunica, of Bulgaria Petar Stojanov, of Albania Rexhep Meidani, of Rumania Emil Constantinescu and their host Boris Trajkovski, as well as Prime Ministers of Greece and Turkey, Simitis and Exhevit, respectively, met face to face yesterday in Skoplje. President of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zivko Radisic and the Croatian Vice-Premier Goran Granic also attended the meeting as observers. The entire gathering was held under the watchful eye of Javier Solana, Foreign Policy and Security Commissioner of the European Union, Bodo Hombach, Stability Pact Coordinator and, to the general surprise, Richard Holbrooke, USA Ambassador to the United Nations who also dropped by and met with Kostunica.

The Summit was held at the idea of the host-country Macedonia, although the initiative for its holding was launched by the Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis at the recent Summit of the European Union held in Biarritz. The hosts were rather surprised by the ease with which the participants accepted the invitation to meet. True, there was some arguing about guests from the Albanian top leadership since no one was willing to meet at the same table with the new President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica. It is assumed that in the end the Western diplomacy exerted the decisive influence on the Albanians who softened their position so that President Rexhep Meidani came to Skoplje. The Macedonian public unfavourably reacted to Stipe Mesic's last minute cancellation who sent Goran Granic, Vice-Premier instead.

Diplomatic circles point out that the Skoplje meeting was actually a dress rehearsal for the Zagreb Summit of the Countries of South-East Europe with European Union representatives scheduled for November 24. Or as one commentator metaphorically put it: it is a dress rehearsal at which representatives of the international community will test them whether, after changes in Yugoslavia, they can sign harmoniously in the same choir". The meeting was of a debutante character in many respects: this was Kostunica's first regional gathering which he addressed and, at the same time, the first visit of the FR Yugoslavia's chief to Macedonia; the latter can be also said of the Greek Prime Minister Simitis. Never too friendly Presidents of Greece Simitis and of Turkey Exhevit, always distrustful Bulgarian Stojanov and Macedonian Trajkovski sat at the same table...

The Summit was held behind closed doors so that over 300 journalists had to be satisfied with statements provided by the press-services of the heads of delegations at briefings. Even the usual inaugural session with brief address of the Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, was off limits for the press in the improvised press-centre so that ordinary TV viewers were in a better position.

Opening the Summit, President Trajkovski said that countries of the region were faced with issues relating to the definition of their joint development vision. Each country of the South-East Europe should observe the future with new visions and ideas. "I am convinced that this Summit opens a new era in our relations, our future cooperation. I am truly happy that here today in our country, we have gathered together, at the same place, leaders from the entire region. This is an important positive development after changes that have occurred in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which we all welcome" said Trajkovski. He expressed hope that meetings and talks would promote trust and relations between countries in this part of Europe with the view to establishing good neighbourly relations, as well as to transforming the region in relation to peace, security and cooperation.

Addressing the gathering, Bodo Hombach, Coordinator of the Stability Pact, announced that FR Yugoslavia would be admitted as full-fledged member of the Pact already the following day, October 26, at the Bucharest Meeting. The statement of the Stability Pact Coordinator Bodo Hombach was presented in such a tone so as to convince every country of the region that it had no reason to fear being harmed on account of FRY.

In his statement at the Summit, the President of FR Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica, inter alia, emphasised: "On our way back to Europe and the world at large, the key stop is South-East Europe, i.e. the Balkans. The worst is behind us. Now, ahead of us lies a difficult task of reconstructing the country, of redefining the relations between Serbia and Montenegro, of regulating the status of Kosovo in line with the Resolution 1244 and of joining the United Nations and other international institutions."

The Foreign Policy and Security Commissioner of the European Union, Javier Solana, expressed his wish to see for himself, as he had put it: "how the cooperation was being carried out in practice at this informal gathering which will not bring decisions, but celebrate the fact that the Balkans were complete again and also discuss the forthcoming meeting of the European Union and Balkan Countries in Zagreb." S omewhat discordant with all the praise for Belgrade changes was the address of the Albanian President Rexhep Meidani, who demanded of Yugoslavia to publicly condemn Slobodan Milosevic's regime, apologise for war crimes and state its position on the status of Kosovo based on the principles of self-determination.

He explicitly supported the holding of a referendum on the independence of Kosovo. The Geek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis thanked the hosts for showing in practice, in such a short time and so successfully, on the eve of the next month's official Zagreb Summit with the European Union, benefits of a dialogue in resolving the hardest problems in the region and emphasised that without stability and democracy there could be no economic progress. His colleague from Turkey, Bulent Exhevit, advocated the integral instead of unilateral resolution of current mutual problems between the two countries - at the green table instead in European courtrooms.

At the closing of the Summit the participants held a press-conference. As it could be expected, the presence of the Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica attracted greatest attention. In response to a question on the future cooperation with Bosnia, Croatia and other neighbours, Kostunica said that the first step would be to regulate diplomatic relations and that this Summit was a step towards the normalisation of relations. Asked to state his position on the results of Kosovo elections, Kostunica remarked that the elections were not being held under favourable conditions. "Elections could turn out to be mono-ethnic and it would have been better it they had been postponed", was Kostunica's opinion. Nevertheless, they remained a fact. Some usual sparks were emitted in a reply to a question of a Greek journalist on relations between Athens and Ankara, but both Simitis and Exhevit agreed that dialogue was the only way for overcoming this problem.

The Conference was closed with the adoption of a joint declaration. It welcomed the return of FR Yugoslavia among countries of South-East Europe. The principle of equality and non-discrimination of all states-successors of former Yugoslavia, was underlined. The declaration also expressed principled support for the application of all relevant resolutions of the world organisation. Thereby direct mention of the Security Council Resolution 1244 was avoided because at least two participating countries - Albania and FR Yugoslavia - were likely to have different stand regarding its interpretation. The regular Balkan summit will be held next February, again in Skoplje. A multitude of bilateral meetings, so to say of "everyone with everyone else", were held at the margins of the Summit. As the "star" of this Summit, the Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica held meetings with Presidents of Bulgaria, Rumania and Bosnia & Herzegovina. He also met with Javier Solana, European Union's Commissioner for Foreign Policy and Security. Nevertheless, a shadow remained: despite all persuasion the FRY President did not meet with the Albanian President Rexhep Meidani. The FRY President said that by his very presence at the conference each participant had made a kind of compromise, while Meidani instructed the journalists to read his statement more carefully.

Journalists concluded that the most important part of the Summit was the one that happened after its official closing. Several interesting meetings were held between participants: the Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski met his Greek colleague Kostas Simitis, the Macedonian President Trajkovski met with Kostunica of Yugoslavia, but the meeting which attracted the greatest attention was the one held "behind closed doors" between new FRY President and the American Ambassador to UN, Richard Holbrooke. Just before that meeting, the American diplomatic circles confirmed that Washington was the initiator of that meeting. It was originally planned to last half an hour, but the journalists had to wait three times longer.

Their patience was rewarded because after the meeting, Holbrooke and Kostunica consented to give a brief statements to the press. The collocutors agreed that they disagreed on numerous issues. As FRY President said "it is boring if people are always in agreement and there are no disagreements".

The gathering was more heavily guarded than at the time of President Clinton's visit last summer. Just before the meeting the citizens were asked to restrain themselves from using motor vehicles, especially along the route used by the Conference participants. Despite that, it was impossible to avoid the total collapse of the traffic.

AIM Skoplje

ZELJKO BAJIC