Southeast Europe has become a training ground for different countries and interests, as well as tensions between countries in the region, and it is important that that part of Europe becomes part of the EU, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said on Thursday on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Grabar-Kitarovic said she consciously avoids using the phrase Western Balkans because it had connotations beyond geography.

“Balkanisation has, unfortunately, become a global phrase with negative connotations such as political instability, insecurity and fragmentation, isolation, and getoisation, so I avoid that technical term used by EU and NATO. I even believe it creates a psychological barrier for other EU members which makes them cautious,” she said at a forum on sustainable peace and development in a changing world.

Instead, the area should be seen as the Southeast Europe, because it is a part of Europe, and should be referred to as such, she said, adding it was important to know that Southeast Europe was moving in the right direction, and the international community had lost some of the interest and focus for this part of the world over the past decade.

This has resulted in some other processes developing under the radar, and the Southeast Europe has once again become training ground for flexing geopolitical muscles and various interests, and tensions have grown due to meddling of third countries which do not share our goals and values, as well as the growing tensions between the countries in the region. Political ideologies which have created the foundations for past conflicts did not disappear, they are still present, she said.

At the forum, she spoke on EU enlargement, migrations and the Three Seas Initiative, saying we should not be focused on maintaining status quo in Southeast Europe at a time when the continent was facing an enormous rise in radical and populist movements and ideas from the right and the left.

She said her visit to New York, where she attended the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, was very good, and that she was satisfied with it.

The forum meeting was also attended by former Croatian prime minister Jadranka Kosor and former president Ivo Josipovic.
Commenting on Grabar-Kitarovic's address at the UN General Assembly in which she said that Croatia was an example of good transformation after EU entry, Josipovic said that it was a good speech that presented Croatia well, but that Croatian reality was usually slightly different than the one presented at international meetings.