Prishtina - President Borut Pahor visited Kosovo in preparation for the regional summit of the Brdo-Brijuni initiative on Wednesday for meetings with Prime Minister Albin Kurti and President Vjosa Osmani. He urged accelerating EU accession talks with Kosovo and delivering on the promise to liberalise the visa regime for Kosovo citizens.

Addressing a joint press conference with his counterpart, Pahor noted the good bilateral relationship between the countries as Osmani thanked him for his efforts to bring countries in the region closer together through the Brdo-Brijuni initiative.

Osmani said Kosovo was confident that Slovenia would continue to support it on its path to membership of the EU and NATO, which she sees as a guarantee for security and development.

Pahor pledged to endeavour for Kosovo EU accession talks to be sped up and for visa liberalisation promises to be fulfilled.

He also pledged to work for Bosnia and Herzegovina to be granted EU candidate status even though it was not meeting all the conditions at the moment. That would also be one of the main topics at the 12 September Brdo-Brijuni summit in Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia.

The summit would call on the EU not to forget about the Western Balkans. Pahor sees stalled talks between Prishtina and Belgrade as the main problem in the region, but he said he was happy about certain results in that respect. He urged both sides to resume dialogue in good faith.

He assessed that the situation in the Western Balkans was deteriorating and the level of trust between leaders was in decline. He warned that the region's social problems could easily become part of the nationalist rhetoric.

He said leaders in the Western Balkans had a duty to do everything possible to refrain from statements and actions that could undermine trust. He was pleased that all the leaders of the Brdo-Brijuni countries had confirmed their arrival in Slovenia for the summit and were willing to talk.