• Saturday, 23 November 2024

Politika: Zaev cancels Belgrade trip, Vucic in dilemma whether to host Open Balkan meeting

Politika: Zaev cancels Belgrade trip, Vucic in dilemma whether to host Open Balkan meeting
Belgrade, 1 November 2021 (MIA) – North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who stepped down as head of the government after Sunday’s SDSM defeat in the local elections, will not travel to Belgrade to attend a meeting of the Open Balkan initiative on Nov. 3-4, which was the plan initially, reports the Belgrade-based Politika daily. “Mr. Zaev won’t come to Belgrade given the political situation,” Politika reports citing a statement of Zaev’s office adding that North Macedonia will be represented by another political official at the Belgrade meeting, who is set to be announced today or tomorrow. Outgoing PM Zaev and his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama were scheduled to visit Serbia on Nov. 3-4 as part of the Open Balkan initiative. In addition to resigning as prime minister, Zaev on Sunday also resigned as leader of SDSM. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who is in Glasgow to attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), on Monday met with Albanian PM Rama and North Macedonia’s President Stevo Pendarovski. “Strong support for ‘Open Balkan’. Should we hold or should we cancel the Belgrade meeting given the developments in Skopje?”, wrote Vucic on Facebook.