Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani welcomed the creation of a group of Balkan countries that will fully align their foreign policy with that of the European Union. The group is dominated by Albania and Kosovo, and also includes Macedonia and Montenegro, both of which have influential Albanian minorities.

We are launching a new platform, Western Balkans QUAD that has 100 percent alignment of its foreign policy with the EU. We are doing this light of the new geo-political reality, the hybrid threats, the energy crisis and the economic consequences caused by the Russian invation of Ukraine, Osmani said.

The group notably excludes Serbia and Bosnia, the other two Western Balkan countries that are not part of the EU. Republika asked Osmani how he expects to achieve full alignment with the “EU foreign policy” considering that the EU member states do not have fully aligned positions on everything, and five of them don’t even recognize Kosovo. We are awaiting response.