—🇪🇸/🇹🇷/🇮🇹 NATO’s Mediterranean Triad is officially rising:

1. Spain helps Turkey build a carrier;
2. Turkey fills it with homegrown drones;
3. Italy partners with Turkey in aerospace;
4. Italy buys those drones for its own carrier;

NATO’s southern flank is rewriting the playbook!

🔗 Soner Cagaptay

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇮🇱/🇷🇸 NEW: Israel and Serbia are tightening defense ties as Belgrade prepares to manufacture drones in cooperation with Israeli arms giant Elbit Systems.

➡️ This comes together with expanded Serbian arms exports that include major orders for Elbit-produced artillery, missiles and advanced UAVs, according to Israel’s Haaretz daily.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇧🇬 NEW: With each election cycle, the Ministry of Interior conducts police operations targeting vote-buying practices.

➡️ Following the launch of the campaign for the April elections, more than 50 individuals have already been detained in connection with vote-buying schemes representing a 300–400% increase compared to the 2024 elections.

➡️ Notably, these are the first elections in which the party led by Delyan Peevski is participating independently, after splitting from Ahmed Dogan.

➡️ Observers suggest that this development may be a contributing factor to the reported rise in vote-buying activities.

ℹ️ Information reported by our source in Bulgaria.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇲🇩/🇪🇺/🇲🇩 NEW: Moldova has proposed that the EU assume temporary external administration of the breakaway region of Transnistria to facilitate its peaceful reintegration into Moldova.

➡️ Brussels would manage a convergence fund focused on social aid and key infrastructure projects in the territory.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—❗️🇪🇺❌🇷🇸 NEW: Serbia risks losing up to €1.5 billion in EU funding as the European Commission considers suspending payments over democratic backsliding, judicial concerns and Belgrade’s close ties with Russia, according to Politico.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇺🇸/🇷🇸 (🇧🇦) WATCH: Donald Trump Jr said Republika Srpska has “great energy potential” and educated, hardworking people, calling it a major opportunity for US companies to invest during an interview with filmmaker Boris Malagurski in Banja Luka.

➡️ His visit, framed around business and investment outreach, highlighted hydropower and cheap electricity as key advantages for the entity in attracting American capital.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇧🇦/🇺🇸 NEW: The House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has amended the Law on the Southern Interconnection, clearing the way for a U.S. investor to build a new pipeline to bring American gas into the country.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—❗️🇷🇸 NEW: Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said the man behind the planned attack on the Balkan Stream gas pipeline previously held a military rank in his home country’s army before defecting, linking the foiled sabotage near Kanjiža to an individual with formal military training.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—❗️🇺🇸/🇷🇴/🇷🇺 Romanian President Nicușor Dan:

The FBI, alongside partners including the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), have announced the disruption of a sustained cyberattack targeting sensitive infrastructure in several Western states.

Cyber operatives associated with the GRU (the Russian military intelligence service) were collecting military, governmental, and critical infrastructure-related information.

Russia therefore continues its hybrid war against Western countries - only those acting in bad faith could fail to see this.

Romania must improve its cybersecurity and continue to coordinate with Western partners on these matters.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇮🇱/🇽🇰/🇵🇸 NEW: Israel has welcomed Kosovo’s readiness to contribute to peace efforts in Gaza, with Ambassador Tamar Ziv stressing that the move reflects growing ties between the two countries.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇲🇩/🇲🇩 NEW: The Transnistrian de facto authorities in Tiraspol have requested a meeting with the Moldovan government in Chișinău, officially citing the need for guarantees for Transnistria’s residents and their return to permanent places of residence.

➡️ The move appears prompted by Moldova’s withdrawal of citizenship from separatist figure Mova and the refusal to allow him entry into the country.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇽🇰/🇷🇸/🇷🇺 NEW: Kosovo PM Albin Kurti told the London Defence Conference that Serbia is acting as a proxy of Russia.

➡️ He claimed there are 48 Serbian forward operational bases around Kosovo’s border, all located inside what is formally designated as the NATO security zone.

➡️ He added that the Kremlin maintains an office within Serbia’s Ministry of Defense in Belgrade and that the Balkan regional centers of Russia Today and Sputnik are based in Serbia.

🗒 Note: the picture just illustrates the claims of PM Kurti but does not assume they are true.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇸🇮 NEW: Zoran Stevanović, leader of the Resnica (Truth) party, has been elected Speaker of Slovenia’s parliament with 48 votes in a secret ballot, backed by the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) of Janez Janša and other center-right allies.

➡️ His election strengthens the emerging center-right bloc and increases the likelihood that SDS leader Janez Janša will assemble the numbers for a fourth government once coalition negotiations conclude.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English