Day: June 9, 2021

BELGRADE, Serbia – Leaders of Serbia and Kosovo will meet on June 15 for a new round of talks on normalization of ties, an EU official announced on Wednesday.

“The new round of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will be held in Brussels next Tuesday,” EU Commission spokesperson Peter Stano said at a news conference.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti, and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will take part in the talks, which will be the first since Kurti became premier this March.

The focus will be on “how to proceed in the future,” Stano said, adding that hopes are high that efforts ongoing since 2011 will result in a comprehensive normalization agreement.

The EU has been leading negotiations between the two sides for nearly a decade, but the process has suffered setbacks due to heightened tensions over the past few years.

Last September, Serbia and Kosovo agreed to take steps towards economic cooperation after talks held in the US.

Serbia, however, had turned down calls for mutual recognition.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 2008 and is recognized by more than 100 countries, including the US, the UK, France, Germany, and Turkey.

Belgrade, however, still claims Kosovo as a breakaway province. China and Russia are among the countries yet to recognize Kosovo as an independent state.

Source: Anadolu Agency

ANKARA – Pakistan’s ambassador to Turkey on Wednesday paid a visit to the headquarters of Anadolu Agency, Turkey’s premier news source.

Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi was welcomed at the headquarters in the capital Ankara by Serdar Karagoz, the agency’s director general, and Yusuf Ozhan, the deputy director general and editor-in-chief.

In the meeting, Karagoz talked about Anadolu Agency’s global news presence and journalistic work.

Anadolu Agency tells the world what is happening from where it is actually taking place, the director general noted.

Mentioning the agency’s experiences, Karagoz added that the goal of being the most reliable source continues.

Ambassador Qazi, for his part, highlighted the importance of improving relations between the two countries and the key role the media plays in this, especially the Anadolu Agency.

Mentioning the successful works of the Anadolu Agency, he said that Pakistani people welcome Anadolu Agency with its coverage.

The ambassador said during his duty as ambassador in Turkey for nearly four years, he has been following Anadolu Agency’s progress.

During the meeting, Ozhan made a detailed presentation on Anadolu Agency’s news strategy, aims, activities and shared some featured photographs of the agency that leading media organizations worldwide used.

Karagoz and Qazi also exchanged symbolic gifts at the end of the meeting.

Founded in 1920, Anadolu Agency is a leading global news agency operating across the world. It serves subscribers in more than 100 countries, including in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Asia-Pacific.

Source: Anadolu Agency

ANKARA – Turkey’s development of game-changing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is changing the global conversation away from fighter jets, said the Turkish industry and technology minister on Wednesday.

“When we launch our fighting UAVs, the world will talk about the fighting UAVs developed by Turkey, not F-35s,” said Mustafa Varank, noting that Turkey is among only a handful of countries worldwide investing in UAV technology.

In order to become a leading country in high-tech fields, Turkey has stepped up in every field, he told the opening ceremony of a productivity and technology fair in the capital Ankara.

While a decade ago Turkey had to contend with importing and repairing UAVs, today Turkish UAVs will soon fly in European skies, as with Poland’s purchase of Turkish UAVs announced last month, Varank underlined.

“Previously, we were watching other countries’ technology efforts like a movie, but today, Turkey can do its own space research,” he stressed.

On the US F-35 fighter jets, a program Turkey is no longer a part of, he said F-35s are very successful aircraft but that Turkey is developing its own alternative with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI).

On global trade, he said boosting world trade and economic competition among countries makes it necessary to use time and labor power more productively.

“Productivity is an indispensable factor for sustainable growth and also fundamentally affects the competitiveness of countries and companies,” he stressed.

Source: Anadolu Agency