Slovakia has expressed support for a pro European policy for the Balkans and has said that, in addition to not recognizing Kosovo, any new international conference on Bosnia will not solve the internal political issues that the Bosnia politicians cannot solve themselves.

“I am not a supporter of that idea because there is no readiness for an agreement inside Bosnia so that such agreement cannot be forced from the outside and I don’t think that it is good for the international community to divide itself on the question of Bosnia,” said Miroslav Lajcak, chief of Slovakia’s foreign policy and a former administrator of Bosnia.

Instead of new international conferences, Lajcak says that Brussels, Washington and Moscow should send Bosnia clear signals to “deal with questions of European integration and that is what we expect of you”.

Lajcak’s comments came after he met with high officials with the US State Department.

In a conversation to Hillary Clinton, Lajcak said that he told her that US should engage together with the EU on the issue of Balkans.

Lajcak said that Hillary Clinton is completing her team at the State Department that will deal with the question of Balkans.

In her recent Congressional testimony, Clinton said that US has unfinished business in the region.

Lajcak said that during his meeting with Clinton, they’ve spent substantial amount of time on the on the issue “how should the American engagement in the Balkans be”.

“Of course the key has to be a European perspective for the Balkans. I expect the EU to play the dominant position but to have a coordinating support from the US,” said Lajcak.

Lajcak says that the issue of naming a new envoy for the western Balkans is not the key issue. Rather, Lajcak says, defining policy, goals, vision and the strategy should be paramount.

“I clearly said that it is incorrect to name an envoy and then seek a definition what his role should be. First the policy then the instruments,” said Lajcak.

Lajcak also said that Slovakia will not recognize Kosovo.

“This government has no intentions to recognize Kosovo because for that there are two critical elements missing - fist is the agreement between Serbia and Kosovo and second is a unified position of the international community as expressed through the UN Security Council resolution,” said Lajcak.

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