BULGARIAN INITIATIVE ON KOSOVO

AIM Sofia, 5 March, 1998

Tensions in Kosovo have escalated and it is necessary to adopt significant measures, including those in the field of diplomacy, in order to pacify the unstable province. This is the sense of the proposal of the minister of foreign affairs of Bulgaria, Nadezda Mihajlova, which refers to Romania, Turkey and Greece to adopt a joint declaration appealing to the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and the authorities in Belgrade to establish a direct dialogue, and to seek a way out of the crisis without application of force and within the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The idea is based on a clearly expressed concern because of the increase of inter-ethnic tensions in the province which could get out of hand and cause a new war in the Balkans. The latest developments in Pristina and other places where persons were killed and wounded on both sides confirm this forecast. There are, however, certain reservations in relation to the idea of the foreign ministry of Bulgaria because behind it one can discern an awkward attempt to probe the Balkan political space concerning the extent to which Bulgaria could play the role of the generator of serious political initiatives of regional and broader significance.

All things considered, the initiative has already made some of the partners rather angry; for the time being two - Greece and Macedonia, but it is likely that there will be others as well. The initiators from the Bulgarian ministry of foreign affairs remained unpleasantly surprised by the fact that just a few hours after having received the confidential invitation to participate in the initiative, Athens broke the preliminary confidentiality which is necessary in the first phase of consultations. It was planned that the spokesman of the Bulgarian foreign ministry Ratko Vlajkov make the content of the proposal of minister Mihajlova public at a press conference, but this happened just a day after his Greek colleagues, Dimitris Repas has already expressed reservations of Greece. That is how the propagandist effect of this timely Bulgarian idea was nullified and its success seriously questioned. At the mentioned press conference, Vlajkov made it clear that Greece did not reject the Bulgarian proposal, but that it demanded more details about it in view of the fact that Athens had on several occasions tried to mediate between the two opposed parties in Kosovo. According to western diplomats in Sofia, however, premature publicizing of the secret correspondence of Bulgaria with Romania, Turkey and Greece by the Greek party is a clear sign that Athens will not permit the initiative concerning Kosovo to be taken away from it. Especially not now when Greece is trying to take the leading role in Balkan diplomacy, believing that this role rightfully belongs to it since it is both a member of the European Union and the NATO.

The other Balkan state which was obviously insulted was Macedonia. In Skopje they learnt about minister Mihajlova's proposal not from diplomatic correspondence with Sofia, but from the statement of Repas in Athens. The question which immediately arose in the city on the Vardar was why Sofia was inviting only Romania, Turkey and Greece, and they refused to accept the Bulgarian explanation that these were the three main states in the Balkans which were producing stability and security in the region, moreover, because none of these border Kosovo and were not part of former SFRY. Experts think that Sofia has again disregarded the excessive sensitivity of Macedonia to the question of Kosovo and to every diplomatic activity of Bulgaria in the Balkans. Sources from the ministry of foreign affairs of Bulgaria claim that failure to invite Macedonia to participate was very quickly assessed as a mistake, so that a few days later it was invited after all. But, this did not happen not because of pressure from Athens, as claimed in some Macedonian media, but for purely rational reasons for which the initiative was not received well. Suspicion of the authorities in Skopje is caused by the belief that Bulgaria has in this way tried to diplomatically avoid Macedonia and that the initiative of minister Mihajlova was intended to win points on Bulgaria's way towards full-fledged membership in the European Union and the NATO at the expense of candidacy of Skopje.

To this evidently clumsily made promotion of the Bulgarian initiative on Kosovo, doubts are added about double standards of Bulgaria concerning regional cooperation in the Balkans. Sofia still has not a clearly articulated position concerning the Macedonian invitation to the four-party meeting of ministers of defence of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Macedonia. In the Bulgarian ministry of defence they claim that since a broad process of cooperation already exists among the countries of south-eastern Europe in the sphere of defence, its "rump" versions are unnecessary. Let us be reminded that these processes have already been initiated in the political and diplomatic and economic domain among states in the Balkan pensinusla and that they have already been expressed at the meetings held in Sofia and Thessaloniki. In this contextm the question arises: why does the situation in Kosovo demand forming of a "mini-team" of Balkan states as Bulgaria suggested? The explanation of the foreign ministry of Bulgaria that the initiative prescribes that at a later date other Balkan countries join in the activity, as well as relevant members of the international community, does not diminish suspicion that Sofia is trying to steer the course towards its partners in this part of Europe.

AIM Sofija

GEORGI FILIPOV

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