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"It's still too early to talk about results!" What's happening with preparations for a high-level Kosovo-Serbia meeting

"It's still too early to talk about results!" What's

Kosovo and Serbia have not held a high-level meeting since September 2023. The European Union's representative for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Peter Sorensen, is making efforts to change this. He said that he is making preparations to organize a high-level meeting within the framework of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue. Sorensen met in Brussels on Tuesday in a long meeting and for the first time together since taking office, the chief negotiators of Kosovo and Serbia, where he said that he "discussed the normalization of relations between the two countries" and agreed that the discussions will continue soon.

"I hosted a long meeting in Brussels between the chief negotiators of Kosovo and Serbia. We discussed advancing the normalization of their relations in preparation for a high-level dialogue meeting, on the implementation of obligations and current issues. We agreed to continue the discussion soon," Sorensen wrote in X.

It's still too early to talk about results.

For Serbia's chief negotiator, Petar Petkovic, " it is too early to talk about Sorensen's results, since only one tripartite meeting has taken place ." Meanwhile, for Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, the new dialogue mediator, Peter Sorensen, has a clear vision on how to move forward in this process. "For concrete results, it is still early, but Sorensen has more or less a clear vision on how to move forward in the next meetings. Next week he will send two of his closest people to Kosovo and Serbia to obtain additional information and then, in early July, he will decide on the next step. Sorensen wants another meeting in July. This shows me that he has a great investment in the process, he wants to see a result, but so far it is known that Serbia has sabotaged the process ," Bislimi said. He said that a series of meetings were held at the June 10 meeting in Brussels and, according to him, the main part of the trilateral meeting was "discussions on how to move forward regarding the implementation of the Basic Agreement, which Kosovo and Serbia agreed to in 2023."

Serbia's chief negotiator, Petar Petkovic, meanwhile, said that "Sorensen is trying to help in this process," but did not want to talk about results. "The process is ours and we must commit to achieving progress in the dialogue. On our side, there is a clear political will, but we have been waiting for this from Pristina for a long time. We will see, I would not like to judge Sorensen based only on the first trilateral meeting. Let's give him a chance to show himself and see what the result will look like under his mediation ," Petkovic said.

Serbia insists on the formation of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities and the reduction of tensions in the north. "The statute for the establishment of the Association should be based on the agreements of 2013 and 2015, reached within the framework of the dialogue. The Association should appear on the basis of these agreements," said Petkovic. Meanwhile, regarding the reduction of tensions in the north, Petkovic said that, "for everything that happens every day, we have again submitted a list of the latest actions that lead to escalation."

The opposition in Kosovo reacts after the tripartite meeting

In the trilateral meeting between the chief negotiators of Kosovo and Serbia with the European mediator Peter Sorensen, according to the chief negotiator Besnik Bislimi, missing persons, the issue of the functionalization of the interconnection with Serbia and integrated border management were also discussed. One of the opposition parties, the Democratic League of Kosovo, reacted to the trilateral meeting in Brussels, which was attended by the acting Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi. According to this party, Mr. Bislimi "has neither a mandate nor legitimacy to represent the Republic of Kosovo in the dialogue with Serbia".

"The mandate of the government in which Bislimi was appointed chief negotiator by former Prime Minister Kurti ended with the certification of the election results of February 9. Therefore, Bislimi is only an acting minister, without democratic legitimacy and without parliamentary approval to make decisions in the dialogue process," the LDK response states. According to them, "negotiations with Serbia are matters of high state interest and cannot be conducted by an incumbent government." Kosovo and Serbia have been conducting a dialogue to normalize relations since 2011, with EU mediation. A series of agreements have been signed, but many of them have not been implemented./ DW

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