—🇸🇮/🇷🇸/🇪🇺 NEW: Slovak PM Robert Fico spoke in favor of Serbia at the upcoming EU–Western Balkans summit, arguing that current EU policy toward Belgrade “makes no sense” and that Serbia is being punished for its sovereign positions.

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—🇭🇺/🇷🇸/🇪🇺 NEW: Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán said Serbia is “the key country of the Western Balkans” but its EU integration “has not moved a single inch in years,” calling the EU’s treatment of Belgrade “unfair and shameful.”

➡️ He framed the issue as a failure of Brussels to advance Serbia’s accession despite its strategic importance for the region.

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—🇲🇪 AMAZING: A historical overview of Kotor circulating on X notes that the Montenegrin coastal city has been ruled at different times by Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy, along with several now‑defunct European polities, and was even briefly occupied by Russian forces in 1806, underscoring its unusually dense record of shifting foreign control for a single Balkan port city.

🔗 Aristocratic Fury

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—🇲🇪/🇪🇺 NEW: Montenegro has provisionally closed five additional chapters in its EU accession talks, covering the right of establishment and freedom to provide services (Chapter 3), free movement of capital (4), company law (6), agriculture and rural development (11), and fisheries (13), bringing the total of closed chapters to twelve out of thirty-three.

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—🤝🇷🇸/🇸🇮 WATCH: Belgrade was illuminated in the colors of the Slovak flag as Slovak President Peter Pellegrini visited Serbia for talks with President Aleksandar Vučić, in a gesture highlighting the Slovak minority in Vojvodina and broader Slavic ties.

➡️ The lighting, coinciding with discussions on Slovak-language education, cultural institutions and regional development, was framed as a symbolic message to Slovaks in Serbia and a signal of enduring Slavic cooperation.

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—🛢🇲🇩❌🇷🇺 NEW: Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean announced that Lukoil’s fuel terminal at Chisinau International Airport has been confiscated and will be transferred to state ownership within 20 days.

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—☦️ 🇲🇰/🇬🇷 WATCH: Native Macedonians are gathering around bonfires across Aegean Macedonia in northern Greece this evening to celebrate Kolede Babo, the eve before Christmas Eve, with traditional Macedonian songs and dances, including in the village of Mesimeri near Voden/Edessa.

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Thank you for being here.

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—☦️ 🇷🇸 WATCH: A short video of a Serbian family celebrating the Orthodox feast of St. Nicholas has gone viral after some American users mocked their simple food and modest home, prompting a wave of online reactions defending their faith, family bonds and resilience.

➡️ The clip, originally posted on Instagram and widely shared on X, has drawn millions of views and tens of thousands of responses stressing that faith and togetherness matter more than material wealth.

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—🇷🇸/🇷🇺/🇭🇺 NEW: Serbian Energy Minister says Russian shareholders in Serbian oil company NIS are in talks with Hungary’s MOL to exit ownership and have contacted OFAC to secure an operating licence.

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—🇨🇳/🇽🇰 NEW: China has become Kosovo’s third-largest import source, overtaking the combined CEFTA countries, with imports reaching around €840 million in 2025, behind Germany (€940 million) and Turkey (€910 million), while CEFTA stands at about €590 million and the United States at €80 million.

➡️ This marks a notable shift in Kosovo’s trade orientation, with Asian and non-regional partners gaining weight relative to traditional regional frameworks.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇦🇱 NEW: Albanian PM Edi Rama said Albania is “not anymore a mysterious shithole in the middle of Europe” but “part of Europe’s mosaic”, while acknowledging that crime and corruption remain serious problems and arguing that organised crime is an issue “everywhere”, not only in Albania.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇷🇸 Belgrade's Slavic name reveals its ancient roots as the "White City"

➡️ First recorded as Beograd in 878 AD by Pope John VIII, the name derives from Slavic words for "white fortress," likely referencing white limestone walls.

➡️ One of Europe's oldest continuously inhabited cities, Belgrade traces habitation back over 7,000 years to the Neolithic Vinča culture.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—❗️🪖 🇭🇷/🇦🇱/🇽🇰 NEW: Croatia, Albania and Kosovo launch mass production of armored vehicles.

➡️ Ejup Maqedonci, Kosovo's acting defense minister, announced the start of production for the Albanian-designed "Shot" armored vehicle in Kosovo.

➡️ This follows a March cooperation agreement among the three nations, with manufacturing split across each country.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

🇷🇸❌🇽🇰🇺🇸🇹🇷 — Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić accuses Turkiye and United States of arming Albanian-controlled Kosovo against Serbia:

Americans are openly and unambiguously arming Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija. Türkiye is also involved, delivering heavy weapons and everything else.

There is one single goal: directly threatening the Republic of Serbia and its territorial integrity, and attacking the civilian population and the military-police structures of the Republic of Serbia.

—🗳🇽🇰 NEW: Albin Kurti’s nationalist, centre-left Vetëvendosje movement has scored a sweeping victory in Kosovo’s early parliamentary elections, winning just under half of the vote and emerging far ahead of the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Democratic League of Kosovo.

➡️ The result leaves Vetëvendosje only a few seats short of an outright majority, positioning Kurti to form a new government with support from minority parties and potentially end nearly a year of institutional paralysis triggered by the previous parliament’s failure to produce a stable coalition.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

🇮🇱🇨🇾🇬🇷Cyprus, Greece and Israel sign a trilateral military agreement designed for "strengthening stability, security and peace in the Eastern Mediterranean region"