Foreign relations of Croatia

A joint initiative by Germany and France to address illicit firearms trafficking has moved the issue of controlling the illegal trade in small arms from the Western Balkans up the political agenda, the German Federal Foreign Office told BIRN.

As Associated Press (AP) reports, a similar meeting was held in the same place last year.

Main topic of this year's meeting is "regional economic integration " which includes discussions about developing joint vision for aligning with the EU, the implementation of a regional economic zone and other issues, AP reports.

Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic will be hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday in Berlin, in his first official visit to Germany since he took the post in 2016, with Podgorica's bid to join the EU expected to be discussed.

The reception was organized by Prince Charles for the participants of the Western Balkans Summit.

The reception was attended by British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Katherine Ashton, Western Balkan prime ministers who took part in the summit, senior European officials and other guests.

Continuing the Berlin Process, European and Balkan leaders meeting in London on Tuesday agreed to discuss ways to improve growth, strengthen security and achieve reconciliation.

The Serbian president Vucic asked the German chancellor to use here reputation and authority to speed up the realization of these two projects.

In a phone conversation, Vucic told Merkel that he believes the Regional Economic Zone and the construction of the Nis-Pristina highway is of great importance to the Western Balkans.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva heads to London where she will participate in the annual meeting in the Western Balkans of the foreign ministers of the countries in the Berlin process.

The first diplomats of the UK, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, France and Croatia will listen to their six colleagues from the Western Balkans.

The fifth Western Balkans Summit opens on Monday in London with key EU member states and UK leaders meeting the heads of six Balkan governments to "strengthen the reform agenda in the region" so that they can meet the criteria for EU accession.

With Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva as chair, EU Member States today set out the path towards opening of accession negotiations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania in June 2019.

According to the Serbian government, they spoke about "bilateral relations of the two countries, situation in the region and the progress of Serbia in the European integration process."

Special attention was paid to the upcoming Western Balkans Summit within the Berlin Process, to be held in London on July 10.