—🇦🇪/🇦🇱 NEW: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed has awarded the Order of Zayed, the country’s highest civilian honor, to Albanian PM Edi Rama in recognition of his role in strengthening bilateral relations.

➡️ Rama said he aims to deepen cooperation with the UAE in trade, investment, and sustainability.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇧🇦🇷🇸❌🇪🇺 NEW: Truck drivers from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia plan to block all cargo border crossings to Schengen countries on January 26, protesting the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) and accusing Brussels of ignoring demands to simplify procedures.

➡️ The blockade would hit freight traffic on key routes between the Western Balkans and the EU if no compromise is reached before that date.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇧🇬/🇲🇰 NEW: The Bulgarian Embassy in Skopje was attacked, prompting Sofia’s Foreign Ministry to condemn the incident and call on North Macedonia’s authorities to identify and punish the perpetrator.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇽🇰❌🇮🇷 NEW: Kosovo’s foreign minister has voiced support for Iranian protesters and condemned the Iranian Islamic regime’s use of force.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—❗️🇮🇱/🇷🇸 (🇧🇦) NEW: Relations between Israel and the Republic of Srpska are expanding as Israeli company Aktiv Israel prepares to move production from Turkey to Srpska.

➡️ Milorad Dodik, leader of Srpska’s ruling party, will travel to Israel on 25 January and is expected to meet the country’s president during the visit.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🪖🇧🇦 NEW: Bosnia revoked the drone production license of BNT – Tvornica mašina i hidraulike in Novi Travnik, after inspections found discrepancies between declared and actual drone parameters, continued production after the permit expired, and failures to submit subcontractor agreements within the legal deadline.

Defence Minister said he hopes the decision will be reviewed through legal procedures so that production can resume soon, only days after he publicly claimed Bosnia had developed a domestic drone “better than Bayraktars” ahead of its planned unveiling at the EDEX arms fair in Cairo.

🔗 Dunav Intel

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇦🇱/🇬🇷/🇲🇪 WATCH: Albanian PM Edi Rama joked about Greeks and Montenegro during a panel discussion in the UAE.

"As a Greek ... you always underestimate people because you believe you have a monopoly on philosophy and are the direct heirs of Plato and Aristotle, but you are not."

"Montenegro is the greatest and biggest country in the region. They gave 50 million citizens. We are small, but Montenegro is the one."

🔗 kos_data

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇷🇸 (🇧🇦) /🇮🇱 NEW: Milorad Dodik sharply condemned “wanted” posters targeting Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Sarajevo, calling them an act of political and religious hatred.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—We received this comment from a subscriber about the geopolitical importance of Kosovo:

The only importance Kosovo has is to America's power projections into the Balkans. There's a reason one of the biggest military bases in Europe, Camp Bondsteel, is located in Kosovo. Nobody else cares about it which is why it remains an irrelevant backwater.

Do you agree with him?

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—❗️UPDATE: Croatia’s Defence Ministry issued a lengthy statement rejecting President Zoran Milanović’s criticism of the Rafale fighter jet deal, stressing that “Croatia and Serbia are not and cannot be in the same category” and that the aircraft were bought as a NATO and EU member via a G2G agreement with France to protect Croatian airspace and meet alliance obligations.

➡️ The ministry underlined that Croatian Rafales are integrated into NATO systems such as IFF and Link 16 with access to the full weapons suite, framed the F3-R to F4 upgrade as routine lifecycle modernisation, defended broader rearmament including HIMARS, CAESAR, Leopard 2A8, Bayraktar drones and new corvettes, and accused Milanović of having cut the defence budget and soldiers’ benefits when he was prime minister while now “systematically” undermining the army and its alliances.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🛢🇭🇺/🇷🇸 UPDATE: Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Belgrade that energy company MOL is interested in acquiring a majority stake in the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS), stressing that while details are up to MOL, the company is clearly aiming for majority ownership.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

#BREAKING | 🇷🇺 🇲🇩 — Russia calls on its citizens to avoid traveling to Moldova citing "harassment" and "discrimination," per MFA.

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—❗️🇧🇬 NEW: Bulgaria is officially going to have early elections after the third mandate given by the president was turned down by the Ahmed Dugan's party, according to our source in the country.

➡️ This is the 8th election in 5 years.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English