President Erdoğan met with Bakir Izetbekovic in Sarajevo, the Muslim member of the three-member Bosnian Presidential Council. The purpose of the talks were to promote bilateral relations between Turkey and Bosnia in view of the recent developments in the Balkans. They pledged a multi-billion investment in a key motorway connecting Belgrade and Sarajevo.
EU STATES WORRY OF TURKEY’S INFLUENCE IN BALKANS
The transport ministers of Bosnia and Turkey signed a letter of intent for the construction of the highway connecting the two Balkan capitals, a project estimated to cost 3 billion euros.
Ivan Isailovic, mayor of the small Serbian town of Krupanj, is off next week to seek investors not in Munich or Paris, but in Istanbul – a sign of Turkey’s growing influence across the western Balkans that worries some EU states. A Turkish company has already created 300 jobs at a textile plant in Krupanj, with political ties between Belgrade and Ankara helping to secure the biggest investment in 30 years for a town that was badly hit by floods in 2014.
“They are good investors … and they have not asked for subsidies.” Isailovic told Reuters, saying this was why he was going to Turkey in the hope of attracting more money, this time into the local wood industry.