Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that his country would "help its Balkan neighbors secure enough gas for the winter."

“The winter is coming. Energy and food security have become the usual challenges. There is no other recipe than solidarity. We in Turkey are doing everything we can to implement the Istanbul wheat agreement and we are doing everything to help our Balkan neighbors secure enough gas for the winter,” Cavusoglu told the opening of the Open Balkan summit in Belgrade.

He said that the Open Balkan initiative is a bridge between the Balkans and European Union and warned that the EU has turned to itself and narrow political interests have taken over the expansion policy. He added that the Ukraine war recalled the importance of expansion and expressed hope that Open Balkan will help speed up the European integration of the region.

According to him, the entire Balkans should take control of its fate and remove obstacles to growth.

Cavusoglu said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would visit Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia on September 6-8.