23 July 2009 / TODAY'S ZAMAN, ANKARA
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is scheduled to hold talks today in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, on the first leg of a tour to two Balkan countries, Serbia and Montenegro.
Davutoğlu was scheduled to depart from Ankara late Wednesday after Today's Zaman went to print. He is scheduled to proceed to Montenegro on Friday and return to Turkey on Sunday. “The importance we attach to our relations with the Balkans as a foreign policy priority and our desire to conduct consultations with these countries within the framework of Turkey's current chairmanship of the Southeast European Cooperation Process (SEECP) form the backdrop of these visits,” the Foreign Ministry said in a written statement announcing the tour. “The visits will also facilitate the opportunity to explore the possibilities of further developing our bilateral relations with Serbia and Montenegro and to take up regional and international issues of common interest,” the statement concluded. The SEECP is a forum for diplomatic and political dialogue among Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Croatia and Montenegro. The initiative was launched in Sofia in July 1996, during a meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of Southeast European countries, who decided to start a long-term process of multilateral cooperation among participating states.
