The special envoy for dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajčak, said that the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA) are on the same side when it comes to the Western Balkans.
Lajčak said this in Davos, where he met with the US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, James O’Brien, and during that meeting the situation in the Western Balkans was discussed.
“I started my week in Davos with a meeting with US Secretary of State O’Brien. It was important that this conversation about the Balkans developed at the beginning of this year. We want to see the region move forward and its citizens benefit. I am glad that we reaffirmed that we are completely on the same side,” Lajčak wrote on the social network X.
Last night, the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) began in Davos, where numerous heads of state or government, partner companies of the Forum, leading experts and representatives of civil society will participate.
Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who also traveled to Davos, said that there is a possibility that he could participate in the World Economic Forum panel together with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
“There is a possibility that I will be on the panel with the president of Serbia, while on Tuesday, as I saw the agenda, I will meet with the high-ranking American official James O’Brien, who has known Kosovo very well for three decades,” Kurti said, according to Reporters.net.
On the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Lajčak met with the First Vice-President of the Kosovo Government, Besnik Bisljimi, with whom he discussed the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
“I met with the First Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bisljimi, with whom we discussed a wide range of dialogue topics and expectations for the progress of the normalization of relations with Serbia in the coming period. We agreed that the rapid implementation of the Agreement on the road to normalization is urgent,” wrote Lajčak on social network X.
After Vučić and Kurti reached agreement on the Agreement on the Road to Normalization of Relations on February 27, the annex to that agreement was accepted in Ohrid on March 18, which is actually the implementation plan of the February agreement. Although EU members claim that agreement has been reached on both of these documents, neither has been signed.
Vučić has stated on several occasions that he does not intend to comply with some obligations arising from those agreements, such as the provision that he will not block Kosovo’s membership in international organizations. On the other hand, Albanian Prime Minister Albin Kurti does not want to form a Union of Municipalities with a Serbian majority that would have broad powers, something like the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The leaders of the European Union as well as representatives of the USA have repeatedly called on Kosovo to establish a Community of Municipalities with a Serbian majority, and in October 2023, representatives of the EU, the USA, Germany, France and Italy presented Kosovo and Serbia with a draft statute for the formation of ZSO.
The United States of America maintains that the complete normalization of relations between the two countries can only be achieved through mutual recognition, but Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has repeated several times that he will never recognize the independence of Kosovo, Fena news agency writes.
