EU-mediated Serbia-Kosovo meeting ends without the need of agreement
BRUSSELS — The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo failed Thursday to reach an agreement on longstanding border and mutual recognition issues that have spiked tensions in the Balkans and additional to Europe’s instability in the course of the war in Ukraine, the European Union’s overseas policy main said.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti held talks in Brussels in the course of a conference that the EU’s top diplomat explained took put “in a crisis management method.”
Josep Borrell, the EU’s large consultant for foreign affairs, declared just after the two leaders achieved, “Today, there is no arrangement.” He stated Kurti and Vucic did consent to more conversations on a standard foundation to hasten the method of normalizing ties amongst their nations.
There ended up no instant responses from Vucic and Kurti. Serbian media mentioned Vucic would “address” his nation Friday.
Kosovo is a former province of Serbia, which has refused to identify the country’s 2008 declaration of independence. A NATO-led intervention in 1999 ended a war in between Serbian forces and separatists in Kosovo and stopped Belgrade’s bloody crackdown against bulk Kosovo Albanians.
The European Union has overseen a long time of talks to normalize their ties, declaring that’s a person of the primary preconditions for Kosovo and Serbia’s eventual membership in the 27-country bloc. The function of Thursday’s meeting “was to relaxed down the scenario on the floor,” Borrell explained.
Tensions amongst Serbia and Kosovo soared anew late past month when Kurti’s federal government declared that Serbian identity files and motor vehicle license plates would no extended be legitimate in Kosovo’s territory.
Minority Serbs, who reside primarily in northern Kosovo, reacted with anger, placing up roadblocks, sounding air raid sirens and firing guns into the air and in the route of Kosovo police officers. No one particular was wounded.
Less than obvious strain from the West, Kurti postponed the implementation of the measure for a month, to Sept. 1.
“We are at a critical time for Europe,” the EU’s Borrell stated. “After the Russia invasion of Ukraine, we are going through a remarkable and incredibly risky second for our continent, and this is not a moment for increasing tensions.”
“It is time for searching for methods of very long-standing troubles,” he included.
Along with Serbia, its allies Russia and China really don’t figure out Kosovo’s independence, which is supported by the United States and most other Western states.
There are fears in the West that Russia could motivate Serbia into an armed intervention in northern Kosovo that would further destabilize the Balkans and shift at the very least some attention from its war in Ukraine.
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AP writers Dusan Stojanovic and Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade, Serbia.
BRUSSELS — The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo failed Thursday to reach an agreement on longstanding border and mutual recognition issues that have spiked tensions in the Balkans and additional to Europe’s instability in the course of the war in Ukraine, the European Union’s overseas policy main said.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti held talks in Brussels in the course of a conference that the EU’s top diplomat explained took put “in a crisis management method.”
Josep Borrell, the EU’s large consultant for foreign affairs, declared just after the two leaders achieved, “Today, there is no arrangement.” He stated Kurti and Vucic did consent to more conversations on a standard foundation to hasten the method of normalizing ties amongst their nations.
There ended up no instant responses from Vucic and Kurti. Serbian media mentioned Vucic would “address” his nation Friday.
Kosovo is a former province of Serbia, which has refused to identify the country’s 2008 declaration of independence. A NATO-led intervention in 1999 ended a war in between Serbian forces and separatists in Kosovo and stopped Belgrade’s bloody crackdown against bulk Kosovo Albanians.
The European Union has overseen a long time of talks to normalize their ties, declaring that’s a person of the primary preconditions for Kosovo and Serbia’s eventual membership in the 27-country bloc. The function of Thursday’s meeting “was to relaxed down the scenario on the floor,” Borrell explained.
Tensions amongst Serbia and Kosovo soared anew late past month when Kurti’s federal government declared that Serbian identity files and motor vehicle license plates would no extended be legitimate in Kosovo’s territory.
Minority Serbs, who reside primarily in northern Kosovo, reacted with anger, placing up roadblocks, sounding air raid sirens and firing guns into the air and in the route of Kosovo police officers. No one particular was wounded.
Less than obvious strain from the West, Kurti postponed the implementation of the measure for a month, to Sept. 1.
“We are at a critical time for Europe,” the EU’s Borrell stated. “After the Russia invasion of Ukraine, we are going through a remarkable and incredibly risky second for our continent, and this is not a moment for increasing tensions.”
“It is time for searching for methods of very long-standing troubles,” he included.
Along with Serbia, its allies Russia and China really don’t figure out Kosovo’s independence, which is supported by the United States and most other Western states.
There are fears in the West that Russia could motivate Serbia into an armed intervention in northern Kosovo that would further destabilize the Balkans and shift at the very least some attention from its war in Ukraine.
———
AP writers Dusan Stojanovic and Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade, Serbia.