Ispis stranice Povratak na prethodnu stranicu PR OFFICE Smanjivanje slova Povećavanje slova

Sarajevo, December 12th, 2009

Press Release

Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH Sven Alkalaj Takes Part in the High-Level Conference on the Topic „German and U.S. Leaders in Dialogue with Leaders from the Western Balkans“ Organized by the Aspen Institute from December 11th to December 13th, 2009

Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH Sven Alkalaj is taking part in the high-level conference on the topic „German and U.S. Leaders in Dialogue with Leaders from the Western Balkans“. The conference, organized by the Aspen Institute, is being held from December 11th to December 13th, 2009 in Berlin.

In addition to Minister Alkalaj, Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Kosovo, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Stuart E. Jones, German Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Parliamentary Group for BiH Rainer Stinner, German Member of Parliament and Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs Marieluise Beck, EU High Representative and Special Representative for BiH Valentin Inzko, Political Director in the German MFA Emily Haber, and leading representatives of the Aspen Institute are also taking part in the conference.  

A roundtable on the topic Security and Prosperity in the Western Balkans was held on the opening day of the conference, December 11th, 2009, as part of the open portion of the program. A great number of representatives from the diplomatic corps in Germany, public figures, journalists and the media attended the event. In an address held during this roundtable, Minister Alkalaj emphasized that the European and Euro-Atlantic perspective as well as reform processes aimed at strengthening security and building mutual trust and cooperation between the Western Balkan countries are very important for BiH and the region as a whole. In that sense, he stressed that BiH has placed particular emphasis within its foreign policy priorities on strengthening regional cooperation in all aspects of common interest that lead to faster progress towards the EU and NATO.        

On the second day of the conference, December 12th, 2009, working meetings and panels were held on the most important topics related to integration processes in the region – EU Integration Perspectives of the Western Balkans, NATO Enlargement in Southeast Europe, Western Balkans as a Natural Gas Transit Corridor from the Aspect of Ensuring the Energy Independence of EU and the Region. The attending Ministers of Foreign Affairs and high-level U.S. and German government representatives engaged in open and argumented discussions and exchanged views during the course of these meetings.

As part of the discussion on NATO enlargement in Southeast Europe, Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH Sven Alkalaj held one of the introductory addresses, in which he underlined that joining NATO is one of BiH's top foreign policy priorities at this time, adding that it is crucial the Alliance member countries recognize what BiH has achieved as part of armed forces reform as well as fulfilling conditions for NATO membership and give a favorable response to BiH's NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) application. 

The BiH diplomacy chief also held a noted introductory address on the topic of ensuring EU and regional energy independence through planned natural gas distribution projects from the Caspian Basin and the Middle East to the EU. He stressed that constructing alternative gas pipelines to and through the Western Balkans is in BiH's interest because being connected to one of the main transit pipelines would guarantee that our country has enough of this natural energy source in the long-term, thus ensuring faster and more secure development of economic capacities and BiH's energy independence.