There is “serious potential to create instability” in the Western Balkans because it is “a testing ground for geostrategic rivalries,” Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman has said.
Speaking to the press after talks with his Bulgarian counterpart, Teodora Genčovska, he said they agreed it was necessary to do everything so that repercussions of the Russian aggression on Ukraine “don’t spill over to the Western Balkans and Southeast Europe,” Hina reported.
“There is still, unfortunately, in a certain sense, serious potential to create instability given that the Western Balkans is, in a certain sense, a testing ground for various geo-strategic rivalries,” said Grlić Radman.
As for the history and identity dispute between North Macedonia and Bulgaria, Grlić Radman said he hoped the two countries “will find a mutually acceptable solution which will allow North Macedonia to continue its European journey.”
Genčovska said Bulgarian-Croatian cooperation within NATO was very good and that a more secure southeastern Europe was conditioned by the cooperation between NATO member states.
The Three Seas Initiative is also important to Bulgaria due to energy autonomy, she said, adding that this initiative has become a lot more significant due to the war in Ukraine.
