Chattanooga Times Free Press

US, EU leaders seek harder line against Serbia

- BY LORNE COOK

BRUSSELS — Senior lawmakers from the United States and Europe are calling for a change in the Western diplomatic approach toward Serbia and Kosovo amid concern that tensions between the two could rapidly spiral out of control.

In the letter, signed by U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his counterpar­ts in Germany, the U.K., Ukraine and other countries, the lawmakers said U.S. and European Union negotiator­s were not putting enough pressure on Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

Serbia and its former province of Kosovo have been at odds for decades. Their 1998-99 war left more than 10,000 people dead, mostly Kosovo Albanians. Kosovo unilateral­ly declared independen­ce in 2008 but Belgrade has refuses to recognize the move.

“It is hugely underestim­ated how serious the situation is that the EU and allies have brought themselves into with the continued appeasemen­t of autocrats in the region like Vucic and (Bosnian Serb leader Milorad) Dodik,” one of the letter’s signatorie­s, Dutch EU lawmaker Thijs Reuten, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

The letter, addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, highlights a series of incidents, including attacks on NATO peacekeepe­rs, since Serbs living in the north of Kosovo boycotted municipal elections there in April.

“All point toward a rapidly deteriorat­ing situation which not only threatens the BelgradePr­istina dialogue, but regional peace itself,” the lawmakers wrote. They said recent finds of hidden weapons in northern Kosovo and cross-border arms smuggling “highlight the risk of further escalation­s.”

Borrell and his team lead a Belgrade-Pristina dialogue aimed at normalizin­g ties, and the U.S. is the other major player. In June, emergency talks with Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti to defuse tensions ended without producing a clear result.

The two refused to meet face-to-face and Borrell, who held talks separately with both men, conceded that they have “different interpreta­tions of the causes and also the facts, consequenc­es and solutions.”

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