In October, on the sidelines of a ministerial-level meeting of the Southeast European Cooperation Process (SEECP), Davutoğlu brought Jeremic and Alkalaj together in İstanbul for their first trilateral meeting. In November, the three held the second such meeting in İstanbul. The third meeting was held in Sarajevo in December and the fourth took place in Belgrade last month. Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, has been holding the chairmanship-in-office of the SEECP since June.
Today’s meeting in Ankara is expected to lead to taking certain concrete steps between parties as part of confidence-building measures, Turkish diplomatic sources told Today’s Zaman on Monday.
At the December meeting in Sarajevo, the three foreign ministers reached a consensus over steps to be taken for the reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina, drawing up an action plan for these steps.
At the time, Davutoğlu, Alkalaj and Jeremic reached an agreement on specific points, such as meeting more frequently, intensifying Bosnia and Herzegovina’s relations with neighboring countries and the fair representation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in international organizations. Tension among Muslims, Serbs and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been brewing for some time over power-sharing disputes, and calls for secession by Serbs and Croats are increasingly being voiced. Turkey wants all parties to pay the utmost attention to the issue because of national elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in October.
Ankara is concerned about instability ahead of the elections and is calling for more international involvement, particularly from Russia and the United States, in efforts to defuse tensions. Ankara also backs NATO membership for Bosnia and Herzegovina, saying international isolation could exacerbate the instability in the country. Turkish officials say a recent decision by the European Union to remove visa requirements for Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia while excluding nationals of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Albania sends the wrong signal that the EU is excluding Muslims.
