Quote:http://www.sananews.net/english/2010/07/11/balkans-countries-consider-joint-engagement-in-afghanistan/

South Asian News Agency
July 12, 2010

Balkans countries consider joint engagement in Afghanistan

-The five countries signed the Adriatic Charter with the United States in 2003, in a bid to facilitate the integration of the southern European countries into the transatlantic NATO alliance.

DUBROVNIK: Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro are considering a joint engagement with the NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, Croat Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic said.

Foreign ministers of Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro “reviewed possibilities of a joint engagement...in Afghanistan,” at a meeting, Jandrokovic told journalists.

“One of the possibilities was that Bosnia-Hercegovina and Montenegro send their (military) instructors who would along with Croatian instructors, already in Kabul, help in education of Afghan forces,” he added.

Jandrokovic was speaking after a meeting of the foreign ministers from the five Adriatic Charter countries at Dubrovnik, a resort on the southern Adriatic coast.

Also present as an observer was their Kosovo counterpart Skender Hyseni.

The five countries signed the Adriatic Charter with the United States in 2003, in a bid to facilitate the integration of the southern European countries into the transatlantic NATO alliance.

Albania and Croatia joined NATO in 2009, but Macedonia’s membership bid has been blocked by Greece.

Greece and Macedonia have been at loggerheads over the right to use the name Macedonia — which is shared by a northern Greek province — ever since the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991.

Montenegro and Bosnia are members of the Partnership for Peace programme, seen as the first step towards full NATO membership.

Croatia currently has some 320 troops with ISAF and is contributing troops there since 2003. Bosnia and Montenegro have 10 and 30 soldiers respectively, both since 2009.

Magda Hassan Wrote:An interesting scenario. Given Osama Bin Laden's (and many other Arab and mujaheddin, Bosnian citizenship and any number of the same with Albanian citizenship I wonder how this will go down with the Afghanis? Brother Muslim republics attacking/invading them. Looks like a door way for more trouble in the Balkans, more European wars, more money for the arms dealers as blowback comes to the handiwork of NATO and the US once again.