Bulgarian Foreign Minister Iwajlo Kalfin on Tuesday expressed fears that the crisis in the ethnic Albanian-dominated Serbian province of Kosovo would lead to instability in the Balkans, according to dpa. Speaking before an international conference in Sofia on security, Kalfin said the international community had to bring Belgrade and Pristina to "a quick agreement through mutual concessions." He added that Belgrade and Pristina should not be forced into a solution that they have not both agreed upon. Kalfin added that the European future of Serbia also should "not directly" be tied to the solution to the problem of Kosovo, which is currently under United Nations administration. Belgrade had to receive the possibility of "quickly covering the distance" to EU and NATO membership, he said. He added that Albania, Macedonia and Croatia could also count on support from Bulgaria for Euro-Atlantic integration. Kalfin pointed to progress in the development of the Balkans in the last 10 years, in which "the negative political significance" of the region was on its way to being forgotten.
