A very tough meeting was held in Brussels between the Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti and the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vuiqi.. The EU-mediated meeting ended without any agreement.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vuiqi., Said after the meeting that this was one of the most difficult meetings since the beginning of the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia for the normalization of relations between the two countries. The joint meeting in Brussels was held with the mediation of the European Union Foreign Policy Representative Josep Borrell and after consultations in separate meetings with the delegations of Kosovo and Serbia. But in the end there was no agreement on any of the issues raised today. “The Pristina delegation only demanded the recognition of Kosovo and nothing else,” said Vucic, who often paused during his statement and tried to formulate opinions.
But from his statement and then that of Prime Minister Kurti it was seen that the talks were not only fruitless, but often with tensions, which some people close to the delegations even called “on the verge of incidents”. “It was good that we had a distance of two meters,” said Kurti, when asked if there were any incidents. Unlike Vucic, who thinks that the demand for recognition of Kosovo’s independence is an extreme stance, Kurti said that the Kosovo side has been very constructive and that “Serbia should get rid of its past and recognize Kosovo’s independence. . ”
We had a constructive attitude, said Prime Minister Kurti, who was in talks with his deputy Besnik Bislimi. “We showed our critical attitude to the process and agreements so far and expressed our readiness for a constructive dialogue for mutual recognition.
Kurti’s requests
The next meeting will be held in Brussels on July 25, and Kurti said that he has submitted four requests: that the six countries of the Western Balkans advance CEFTA in SEFTA (South-East European Free Trade Agreement) according to the model agreement of Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland with the EU; that Kosovo and Serbia immediately sign a joint peace agreement pledging not to attack each other; that after mutual recognition between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia, there should be bilateral reciprocity in both countries, including the issue of rights and minorities. So Serbs in Kosovo can have their National Council as Albanians in Serbia have. And for the issue of missing persons and missing persons by force, to be removed from office persons to be questioned for crimes, such as Veljko Odalovi,, who in the years 1997-1999, was “chief of the region of Kosovo”, and Zoran Angjelkovic.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo said that he did not receive a clear answer for his first proposal, while the other three proposals were rejected.
Asked what his position was on the demands for the establishment of the Serb Majority Association, Kurti said the Constitutional Court had rejected the previous agreement, on 23 counts. While the people of Kosovo are against a mono-ethnic association. While in the question of DË whether Kosovo will file a lawsuit against Serbia for genocide, as Kurti has said several times on the eve of today’s talks, the Prime Minister replied that they are preparing documentation and that for this they need further coordination.
Vucic’s confusion
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While the president of Serbia was nicely confused after the meeting. He said that Albin Kurti came to Brussels to say “that he will not reach an agreement on anything” and that during this meeting there were “provocations”, “irresponsibility” and “unseriousness”.
“I honestly do not know what to tell you. I have not attended any other meeting like this. The duration of the meeting itself speaks about what the results of this meeting were. We agreed to continue the dialogue at the end of July. “I hope this is an important thing, which can guarantee peace and stability, everything else would be unnecessary to comment on,” Vucic said.
However, Vuiqiiq went on to say that there are three important news from this meeting: First, the Albanian delegation does not want to fulfill the agreements it has signed and will not discuss the Association of Serbian Municipalities. Second, their request to urgently and immediately recognize an independent Kosovo. And third, the fact that they call the participation of Serbs in a liturgy in Pristina an incident and provocation. Vuiqii called these requests, as well as the request for Velko Odalovi. To leave the delegation for the search for the missing, as “lack of reality, seriousness and responsibility”.
The dialogue will continue
Despite numerous disagreements and the “meeting on the eve of the incident”, as some of the participants expressed, the parties agree to continue the talks.
EU officials say the meeting has not been easy. “But it is important that the dialogue has continued,” said mediator Miroslav Lajcak. “Both leaders have been very open and direct in expressing their views on what they want and what they expect from the dialogue. It is important for the EU that both sides have confirmed that there is no other way to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia, except dialogue, “said Lajcak.
Lajcak said that the two sides will continue consultations on continuing the dialogue process for the general normalization of relations and that the dialogue will continue at the end of July. While the head of European diplomacy has announced before the meeting that he will continue consultations with American partners on this issue.
After meeting with the delegations of Serbia and Kosovo, he met with US President Josep Biden. The head of the Serbian delegation in the talks and the representative of the office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovi,, while the meeting was going on, appeared before the Serbian journalists and said that in the meantime there are EU consultations with the US for this dialogue and that Serbia’s position is easy. But, as he said, Serbia will continue its battle. / DW
