Djuric: Dialogue in Brussels to Tackle Normalization of Life, Not Mutual Recognition

Marko Djuric (BETAPHOTO/NENAD PETROVIC)

Office for Kosovo and Metohija Director Marko Djuric said ahead of another meeting on technical matters between Belgrade and Pristina scheduled for Aug. 27 in Brussels that mutual recognition between Serbia and Kosovo will never be on the agenda.

“The Belgrade-Pristina technical dialogue will address various aspects of normalizing relations and the creation of conditions for normal life in Kosovo and Metohija, but mutual recognition has never been nor will ever be on the agenda,” Djuric said in the evening on Aug. 26.

He added that “the head of the government of the temporary self-rule institutions in Pristina, Avdullah Hoti, is again spreading fake news aimed at undermining the efforts to continue the dialogue.” “Hoti is free to offer his monologues on the topic, as he has been doing so far, but there will be no dialogue on that issue [mutual recognition].”

Djuric also said that “because of the ever frequent provocations from Pristina and false information on the content and purpose of the dialogue,” Serbia will require from the European Union as the mediator in the dialogue to react and put an end to such misinformation.

At an expert meeting taking place in Brussels on Aug. 27 as part of the political dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Serbia will be represented by Marko Djuric and Kosovo by Skender Hiseni.

This is a third meeting at the expert level. The previous encounters held on July 23 and July 30, respectively, addressed the issue of the missing and displaced people as well as economic matters.