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According to different Turkish media, the inaugural meeting of the Balkans Peace Platform, spearheaded by Türkiye with the aim of contributing to the strengthening of peace, stability and prosperity in the Balkans, was held in İstanbul on 26 July 2025, with the participation of Foreign Ministers and top officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo and Türkiye.
After the meeting, Türkiye Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that the Balkans are not only strategic for his country but also a priority area intertwined with cultural and human ties.
“The stability of the Balkans is of great importance primarily for Europe, as well as for the peace and security of neighbouring regions,” Fidan told a press conference following the inaugural Balkan Peace Platform meeting.
Highlighting the Balkans as a strategic crossroads, the Turkish top diplomat emphasized the region’s significance in political, economic and security matters.
Fidan said bilateral cooperation with regional countries is developing on multiple levels, with high-level contacts expanding into new areas.
“We believe that stability in the Balkans will become permanent primarily through strengthened cooperation and dialogue among regional countries. This approach is based on the principle of regional ownership,” he said.
He said the platform is a “new step in regional ownership, aiming to create a practical and effective structure that encourages honest dialogue and regular contact among all parties.”
The minister expressed Türkiye’s aim to create a foundation where the term Balkans is associated not with division and fragmentation, but with cooperation and solidarity.
“We exchanged views on various topics, including political developments, energy security, strengthening connectivity, regional cooperation, and capacity-building opportunities,” Fidan said.
“We also evaluated the future of the Balkan Peace Platform, aiming for it to serve as a complementary format to existing initiatives in the region.”
The foreign minister also described the inaugural Balkan Peace Platform as an informal format and said there is a consensus to bring leaders together under this framework once progress is made.
Fidan recalled tensions between some Balkan countries but welcomed the fact that “no one wants a hot war or conflict like in the past,” emphasizing a consensus around resolving issues through diplomacy and dialogue.
Establishing stability and prosperity across the Balkans is a top priority for Türkiye, Fidan added.
On decisions made during the talks, Fidan said one of the common agenda items was how the convening nations can share experiences within the EU accession process. Six of the seven participant countries are EU membership candidates.
Fidan said the platform offers a valuable forum for discussing shared experiences on EU visa and customs union policies, regional challenges tied to EU accession and awareness of sensitivities between the bloc and the Balkans.
“Historically, geographically, and culturally, these countries are a continuation of one another,” Fidan said.
Meanwhile, he also highlighted the growing interest of Turkish tourists in Balkan countries. Turkish tourists rank first in visitor numbers across six Balkan countries, Fidan said, with tours to cities like Belgrade, Pristina, Skopje and Tirana becoming increasingly popular.
Comments: The Balkan Peace Platform is a very intelligent and innovative approach of Turkish authorities. According to the official Ankara’s position, the Balkan Peace Platform has been developed “within the framework of Türkiye’s innovative diplomacy understanding and is an initiative that aims to respond to the region’s needs. Türkiye has become a remarkable actor in the Balkans as a natural result of economic growth and foreign policy versatility in the last 20 years. Ankara emphasizes peace, stability and good neighbourliness in the Balkans. It offers solutions to the region’s chronic problems, as it believes that addressing expansionist nationalist tendencies and overcoming the issues created by micro-nationalism is only possible through the sovereign equality of states”.
But, in this context, Türkiye is attentive to minorities living within the borders of the Balkan states, not to be discriminated against and to protect the identities of those peoples. Apart from its diplomatic missions, it also provides economic, technical and humanitarian aid to Balkan countries through semi-official institutions such as the Yunus Emre Institutes, the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay), the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
