French President Emanuel Macron had a telephone conversation with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday. According to a statement from the Palace of the Champs Elysees, Emanuel Macron welcomed Serbia’s co-operation with France, as well as the latter’s clear positions in international organizations regarding the war in Ukraine and the need to respect the sovereignty of all states.
The President of France pointed out that the war in Ukraine creates the need for both the EU and countries such as Serbia, which have the prospect of joining it, to jointly consider their actions. The war in Ukraine is an opportunity for European convergence, said Macron, who, according to the statement, will be in constant contact with his Serbian counterpart.
It is recalled that the European Union Peacekeeping Force in Bosnia (EUFOR) announced yesterday that France will conduct high-speed training flights with jet fighter jets in Bosnian airspace, following the deterioration of the security situation worldwide.
The EU last week decided to increase its EUFOR force to 1,100 from 600, deploying reserve forces from Austria, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia to prevent possible destabilization following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Some soldiers from the increase in strength, have already been deployed. Bosnia is hundreds of kilometers away from the fighting in Ukraine, but is facing an essentially aggressive Serbian separatist movement. Some analysts say the movement has at least some tacit support from Moscow.
“The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is conducting operational training in the Mediterranean Sea and from Monday (March 7th) its Rafale aircraft will fly over the Western Balkans, including Bosnia and Herzegovina,” according to EUFOR.
Senior NATO and European Union officials have warned that war instability in Ukraine could extend to the Western Balkans, Moldova and Georgia.
Bosnia, like Ukraine, has long expressed its desire to join NATO, irritating Russia. Moscow said in March last year that it would react if Bosnia took steps towards joining the US-controlled North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Bosnian Serbs, led by Milorad Dodik, want the country to remain neutral outside NATO.
Dodik, representing the Serb element in Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, provoked the worst political crisis since the end of the war in the 1990s, forcing state actors to secede and join neighboring Serbia as part of a long-running Serb struggle.
EUFOR, which replaced NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia in 2004, has 3,500 troops, 600 of whom have been deployed in the country.
With information from ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
Source: Capital
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