Montenegro

NATO should invite Macedonia and Montenegro to join when it holds its next summit in Poland in July of next year, Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak has said.

"It would be excellent news if the invitations could be sent from (the NATO summit in) Warsaw to Macedonia and Montenegro," Reuters quoted Siemoniak as saying at a conference in Wroclaw, Poland on Friday.

Bosnian fighters returning from Syria and Iraq are forming regional militant networks that pose a direct threat to security in the Balkans and beyond, a study warned on June 11.

The loss of all lives in 1999 was a tragedy, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday during a visit to the Montenegrin capital Podgorica.

"I deeply regret everything that happened. I want to express my condolences to the families and all those who lost loved ones in 1999," Stoltenberg told a press conference after meeting Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.

NATO chief offers condolences to families of victims

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the loss of all lives during NATO's bombing campaign against the SRJ represented "a tragedy."

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network's regional media conference, entitled 'Media Freedom Challenges', will be held on Friday June 12, in Sarajevo, where BIRN's directors and media experts will debate the main obstacles to media freedom in the Balkans.

Senior police investigators from Europe, Japan and the United Arab Emirates gathered in Budva, Montenegro, on Wednesday to share information about ongoing investigations into the so-called "Pink Panther" robberies around the world.

The meeting is part of an Interpol operation against the gang, most of whose members come from the former Yugoslavia.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has told the President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, that she should not consider herself a state president since Kosovo "will never be a state", according to well founded reports in the Belgrade media.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, is coming to Podgorica on Wednesday on a two-day visit to discuss Montenegro's aspirations to become a full member of the Atlantic Alliance by the end of 2015.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has said that the rights of Serbs in Montenegro must be "solved by the Constitution."

Nikolic, who was in Montenegro for a regional summit, said that Serbia must care for Serbs wherever they are, and that this was one of the topics of his meetings with Montenegrin officials.

A summit of regional leaders on Monday in Montenegro heard that the EU project is incomplete without the Western Balkans.

The EU accession process is not a technical but a political issue in which the specificities of each country must also be taken into account, it was further concluded.