US, EU leaders seek harder line against Serbia
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.”