The EU has geostrategic reasons for speeding up the euro-atlantic integration of Western Balkans because it might end up equally divided, said a former Bosnian Prime Minister at a session held at the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The EU must work on the inclusion of the region “because it will find itself in the same situation within the next decade: be integrated or divided and in new conflicts, with polarized societies,” Zlatko Lagumdzija told the panel that was attended by North Macedonian PM Zoran Zaev, Bulgarian Deputy PM Ekaterina Zaharieva, Slovenia’s ex-President Danilo Turk, and Croatia’s ex-President, Ivo Josipovic, as well as Bosnia’s incumbent Presidency Chairan, Zeljko Komsic.

The participants agreed with the head of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation for Human Rights, Kerry Kennedy, what new steps will be taken regarding human rights and education.

In another meeting with Nobel laureate, Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil society leader, the participants discussed artificial intelligence and new technologies and their influence on sustainable development. The panel was also attended by Nobel laureate for peace and children's rights , Kaliash Satyarhiem.

Lagumdzija also attended a meeting of the Council of the International Congress on Artificial Intelligence, which is planned to be held in 2020 and should gather representatives of governments, businesses, scientists and NGOs to establish basic principles and define institutions that will serve the development of artificial intelligence.