Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is in Turkey for with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Bosniak member of the BiH Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic.
Vucic said late on Sunday that he will hold important talks in Istanbul both about Turkish policy in the Balkans, and about solving the problems with BiH (Bosnia-Herzegovina).
Upon his arrival in Istanbul, he said that it was “very important for Serbia to discuss Turkish policy in the Balkans, to improve our friendly relations and see what it is they expect in relations between Serbia and BiH.”
“Our interests will be heard, and we will also hear theirs, so let’s see if we can make certain infrastructural changes with BiH or not, if we can we make any progress on the border issue between our two countries,” Vucic told TV Pink.
Meanwhile, former Yugoslav Foreign Minister Vladislav Jovanovic told the daily Vecernje Novosti that he expects positive progress after the meeting, and pointed out that Turkey was now “more impartial, less under the influence of the West, with an ambition to return to the Balkans, but not in the Ottoman sense.”
“Izetbegovic, who put all his eggs into the Turkish basket and expected unreserved support, will not have it this time on such a scale,” Jovanovic said.
“Erdogan will surely demand that Izetbegovic be more moderate and turn to cooperation with Serbia. Turkey wants to expand economically, and here again it is our country that is its largest partner. He wants to connect Serbia and Bosnia with a highway,” the former diplomat said.
Jovanovic concluded that Turkey’s ambitions are “much broader than those of Izetbegovic – who only wants Serbia to distance itself from Bosnia as much as possible, and turn the RS (Serb Republic) into some kind of Bosnian province.”
Source: b92
