Sebastian Kurz

Greek opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has met with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

During the meeting, which was attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and New Democracy's shadow foreign minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos, Mitsotakis reportedly repeated Greece's established foreign policy positions.

Speaking ahead of Wednesday's session of his cabinet, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Austria was "a friend that supports the Western Balkans and is trying to contribute to the normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations."

VIENNA - Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Friday he would continue to support Serbia and all other Western Balkan countries on the EU path and that this would be one of the priorities of Vienna's EU presidency in the second half of this year.

VIENNA - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday thanked Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz for supporting Serbia, and said he expected the support to be even greater - in particular in European integration - now that Kurz was Austria's head of government.

VIENNA, - New Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says his upcoming meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will address ways in which the Austrian EU Presidency in the second half of 2018 can further encourage Serbia's European perspective.

"The relations between Austria and Serbia are exceptional," Kurz said ahead of Vucic's visit to Vienna, slated for Friday.

Austria is going through a transition, politically. On December 18, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) joined the coalition government led by young centre-right Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (of Austrian People's Party or OVP), with the far-right Heinz-Christian Strache (of FPO) as his Vice Chancellor.

Israel has made it clear that it will work with the new coalition government of Austria, composed of the conservative Austrian People's Party (ANP) and the extreme right Austrian Freedom Party (APA), but "so far" will have no direct contacts with the far-right ministers, the France press reported.

Austria's new government, made up of the centre-right People's Party and the far-right Freedom Party, has already been the subject of warnings that it might stray from European values, but analysts said they don't expect major shifts in the way the country treats the Balkans.

Austria's new coalition government between conservatives and the far right has been sworn in in Vienna, reported BBC. 

The Freedom Party (FPÖ) - the junior partner - is the only far-right party to get into power in the EU.

The FPÖ and People's Party (ÖVP) plan to implement stricter rules for asylum seekers, after immigration proved a major concern for Austrian voters.

The cabinet is led by 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz, who is Austria's youngest head of government (chancellor).

The ceremony, that took place before Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, was accompanied by numerous protests in Vienna, one of which was held in front of his office.