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http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080207/FOREIGN02/310692739/1003/FOR EIGN The Washington Times Embassy Row By James Morrison February 7, 2008 Balkan dreams The Greek ambassador foresees the day when all of southwestern Europe, part of that historical powder keg known as the Balkans, will be peaceful, stable members of NATO and the European Union. "We cannot have a gray hole in the heart of Europe," Ambassador Alexandros Mallias told foreign policy specialists yesterday at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. "We cannot afford another round of destabilization," he said. Mr. Mallias explained that Greece has strategic, security and economic interests in bringing Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia into European institutions. He proudly noted that Bulgaria and Romania in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula and Slovenia, which some analysts consider part of the Balkans, are members of both NATO and the European Union. Slovenia is the first nation of the old Yugoslavia to hold the rotating presidency of the European Union. The ambassador urged the European Union to work with Serbia for membership and to move cautiously over the issue of independence for Kosovo, the troubled ethnic-Albanian province of Serbia. Kosovo is only 140 miles north of Greece or, he added, "an hour and a half by Greek-styled driving." "It's important to engage the democratic government of Serbia," he said, adding that Serbia also must do more to arrest war crimes suspects from the Balkan wars of the 1990s and turn them over to international prosecutors. Greece, he added, has put its own money where its dreams are. More than 3,500 Greek companies do business in the western Balkans and have invested more than $24 billion there, he said. With plans to crisscross the entire Balkans with crude oil and natural gas pipelines, the region is becoming "the energy hub of Europe," he said. "It is no surprise to us that we have ... an emerging marketplace of 140 million citizens" in the entire Balkans, Mr. Mallias said. "It is a new market, a new middle class that will buy our services." As the Greek ambassador, he said, he had a duty to invite U.S. investors to join Greece in the Balkans market and suggested that American entrepreneurs seek out Greeks for advice. "We have the know-how, 'who-how' and the 'where-how,' " he said.
