NATO official: Western Balkans face ‘no imminent threat’

By FLORENT BAJRAMI and LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — A NATO senior official says Western Balkan countries don’t face an “imminent threat” from the war in Ukraine, and are of strategic interest to the alliance. NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana was in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, to meet with local officials and visit the NATO-led KFOR mission. Geoana denounced Russia’s “illogical and brutal war” in Ukraine and its “aggressive and malign influence over the Western Balkans.”