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Leaders of six Western Balkan countries to meet British and European officials London on Wednesday for talks on migration, security and economic development in a volatile region. Russia Wants to make an impact.
delegation from albaniaBosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are attending a summit held as part of the Berlin Process, which was launched in 2014 to allow Southeastern European countries to work toward EU membership.
Is the only Western Balkan nation to join the European Union croatiaWho became a member in 2013. For others, progress has stalled, with the countries at different stages of the journey, and tensions have risen in recent years between Serbia and Kosovo, a former Serbian province whose independence is not recognized by Belgrade.
The EU’s openness to admitting new members has increased since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. There are concerns that the war in Ukraine and Russia’s deepening confrontation with the West could spill over into a region still scarred by its own conflicts.
Britain is hosting the annual summit despite leaving the EU in 2020. Representatives of many European countries and EU are also participating in it.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s centre-left government is hoping to make progress on tackling the drug trade, strengthening the security of Western Balkan countries against Moscow’s interference and – a particular British priority – curbing unauthorized migration.
Gangs have smuggled millions of people into the European Union through this western balkans In recent years, and Britain says, a quarter of the migrants arriving in Britain in small boats across the English Channel have traveled from the region.
Britain is hoping to create a joint task force with Albania to help through return agreements and local projects in areas where migrants come from – reducing the number of Albanian migrants trying to reach Britain from 12,000 in 2022 to around 600 in 2024.
Britain has also sent law enforcement officers to the region to work with Frontex, the EU border agency, and it is looking for countries willing to host “return hubs”, where rejected asylum seekers could be held until they can be deported.
The leaders of both Albania and Montenegro expressed reluctance to build return centers on their soil.
“When it comes to hubs, or whatever they are called, I have said this, and I repeat – never in Albania,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said Tuesday at the Chatham House think tank.
Prime Minister of Montenegro Milojko Spajic said his country is “not part of migratory routes through the Balkans” because its railway infrastructure is not sufficiently developed.
He said Britain might be willing to accept a migrant return hub if it agreed to “invest 10 billion euros in the construction of railways”.