Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Amer Kapetanović participated on Tuesday in the Budapest Balkans Forum 2026, joining a high-level panel on strengthening regional stability through strategic connectivity and holding a series of bilateral meetings with Hungarian officials and policy leaders.
Kapetanović spoke at a panel titled “Building a Stable and Secure Region through Strategic Connectivity,” which brought together senior officials and experts to discuss the role of infrastructure, energy cooperation and policy alignment in strengthening regional resilience and advancing European integration in South East Europe.
“The central question for the Western Balkans is not simply how to connect more, but how to remain competitive within deeper integration with the European and global economy,” Kapetanović said. “Connectivity without security creates vulnerability, and connectivity without investment is just geography. With the right investments, coordination and regional cooperation, it becomes economic transformation.”
Other speakers on the panel included Andor Deli, ministerial commissioner for facilitating European connectivity at Hungary’s Ministry of European Union Affairs, and Ana Trišić-Babić, former acting president of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The discussion was moderated by Miša Đurković, head of the MCC-MKI Center for Geopolitics at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium–Hungarian Institute of International Affairs.
Kapetanović said connectivity should extend beyond infrastructure to include economic cooperation and policy coordination, describing it as a key driver of prosperity in South East Europe. He added that existing regional cooperation frameworks provide a strong basis for advancing connectivity across the region.
During his visit to Budapest, Kapetanović also held bilateral meetings with Péter Sztáray, Hungary’s state secretary for security policy and energy security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Gladden Pappin, president of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs; and László Kövér, speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary.
The meetings focused on regional priorities, connectivity and the European Union integration agenda for South East Europe, as well as the role of policy dialogue and parliamentary engagement in advancing regional cooperation.
The Regional Cooperation Council is a regionally owned cooperation framework established in 2008 as the successor to the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. It serves as the operational secretariat of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) and promotes regional cooperation and European integration in South East Europe. The RCC is headquartered in Sarajevo and maintains a liaison office in Brussels.