{"id":41298,"date":"2021-10-20T08:47:43","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T15:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=41298"},"modified":"2021-10-20T12:48:12","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T19:48:12","slug":"joint-statement-on-the-western-balkans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=41298","title":{"rendered":"Joint Statement on the Western Balkans"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<div>10\/20\/2021 07:10 AM EDT<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Office of the Spokesperson<\/p>\n<p>The text of the following statement was released by the Government of the United States of America and the European Union.<\/p>\n<p><i>Begin Text:<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Following the recent meeting between Secretary Blinken and High Representative Borrell, the United States and the EU agreed to further strengthen their joint engagement in the Western Balkans in support of the region\u2019s progress on its European path. \u00a0We underscore our full support for the EU\u2019s enlargement process. \u00a0EU accession, a stated priority for the whole Western Balkans, helps consolidate democratic institutions, protect fundamental rights, and advance the rule of law. \u00a0This region belongs in the European Union. \u00a0Closer integration will enhance stability and contribute to prosperity for the people of the region. \u00a0In this context, we stress that<b><i>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia should start without delay.<\/p>\n<p>The United States\u00a0and the\u00a0European Union\u00a0are united in their firm support for the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina,\u00a0as well as\u00a0in their joint work to promote electoral and constitutional reform and maintain the functionality of its state institutions. \u00a0We have serious concerns about increasingly divisive rhetoric in Bosnia and Herzegovina.\u00a0 We\u00a0call on all parties to respect and protect state institutions, resume constructive dialogue,\u00a0and take steps to advance progress on the EU integration path \u2013 including on relevant reforms. \u00a0The EU and the\u00a0United States\u00a0stand ready to facilitate these steps.<\/p>\n<p>We stress the importance of the EU-facilitated Dialogue, which is the key mechanism to address\u00a0the\u00a0comprehensive normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo.\u00a0 After the recent weeks of tension in the north of Kosovo,\u00a0we encourage\u00a0both parties\u00a0to\u00a0engage in continued and sustained de-escalation and avoid actions that threaten stability.\u00a0 We welcome and support Kosovo\u2019s engagement to fight corruption and organized crime,\u00a0and we reiterate that violence against civilians,\u00a0journalists, police, or other authorities is unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>We call on all political forces in Montenegro to work together to maintain\u00a0a\u00a0strategic orientation\u00a0that reflects the desire of\u00a0the people of Montenegro to\u00a0achieve the reforms necessary to make\u00a0their\u00a0hopes for a future in the\u00a0EU\u00a0a reality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>10\/20\/2021 07:10 AM EDT &nbsp; Office&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41299,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41298\/revisions\/41299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}