Slovenian President Borut Pahor and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed a rise in illegal migrations on the Balkan route as they held a bilateral meeting in Sarajevo on Monday on the sidelines of a SE Europe cooperation event.
Pahor told Erdogan about the recent rise in the number of migrants entering Slovenia illegally from Croatia, Pahor’s office said in a release.
Erdogan in turn outlined Turkey’s plans about the four million refugees in Turkey, complaining the EU was not fully meeting its financial commitments related to them.
The two presidents are worried that the situation in the Middle East could worsen, and hope that a diplomatic solution will be found to the Iran nuclear deal issue.
Bilateral relations were another topic on the agenda, with Pahor and Erdogan sharing a view there were many opportunities to further develop and deepen political dialogue and economic cooperation.
Pahor met Erdogan before a working dinner of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) summit, which brings Bosnia-Herzegovina’s SEECP presidency to an end.
The Slovenian president had decided to attend the summit due to enhanced dialogue with all Western Balkan leaders and as a sign of support for Bosnia.
The summit will draw to a close on Tuesday with a plenary session and the adoption of a closing declaration.
However, Bosnia will not formally hand its presidency over as planned since Kosovo has sent any representative to the summit in protest of Bosnia’s treatment of its representatives.
Source: STA
Photo: STA