to Berlin the week of November 16 for consultations. He
noted that while Tadic always claimed to be tough on
Republika Srpska PM Dodic, he needed to be tougher. While
expressing pessimism about whether it would ever be possible
to turn Bosnia into a "working state," Heusgen agreed it was
important to keep trying.
also discussed, with general agreement that Turkey is not
ready for membership and could not fulfill membership
criteria. Source said that there was agreement that no
decision would have to be reached on this issue within the
next four years in any case. Westerwelle also spoke against
any type of automatic decision in favor of membership for
Turkey. There was also general agreement that the EU is not
ready for new members at this time beyond Croatia.
resist perceived EU efforts to exclude Turkey from the
Balkans, particularly Bosnia. He identified effecting
rapprochement between Bosnia and Serbia as Turkey's immediate
diplomatic goal for the region. Towards that end,
Sinirlioglu said, we convinced Haris Siladjdzic, who had been
in Ankara the day before, to cease references to Serbian
"genocide." The United States and Turkey have "agreed to
disagree" on the Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Bosnia;
nevertheless, "we value your involvement in the Balkans."