Western envoys ask Kosovo, Serbia to renew talks

PRISTINA, Kosovo — The envoys of the European Union and the United States urged Kosovo and Serbia on Saturday to resume their dialogue on normalizing relations before the bitter tensions between the two sides result in more violence.

EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak and Gabriel Escobar, U.S. special representative to the Western Balkans, met with Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina. They later traveled to Serbia for a meeting with President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade.

The visitors were accompanied by top diplomats from Germany, France and Italy, reflecting Western concerns over the crisis in the volatile Balkan region.

It was the first such engagement since about 30 Serb gunmen crossed into northern Kosovo on Sept. 24, killing a police officer and setting up barricades before launching an hourslong gunbattle with Kosovo police. Three gunmen were killed.

Lajcak said that during their meeting with Kurti, the foreign officials stressed that “the terrorist attack against Kosovo police by armed individuals (that) constitutes a clear and unprecedented escalation.”

He added that the attack also “very clearly underlined that both de-escalation and normalization are now more urgent than ever.”

“If there is no dialogue, there might be a repetition of escalation,” Lajcak said.

Serbia and its former province, Kosovo, have been at odds for decades.

Both Kosovo and Serbia want to join the EU, which has told them that they first need to sort out their differences.

Western powers want Kosovo and Serbia to implement a 10-point plan put forward by the EU in February to end months of political crises. Kurti and Vucic gave their approval at the time, but with some reservations.