Palmer and Lajcak with Serbian Officials in Belgrade on June 3

Mathew Palmer (BETAPHOTO/SERBIAN GOVERNMENT/SLOBODAN MILJEVIC/DS)

Miroslav Lajcak, the EU special representative for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, and Matthew Palmer, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, will talk in Belgrade on June 3 with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and other officials on the continuation of the dialogue at the high level.

Lajcak and Palmer are arriving in Belgrade after their two-day visit to Kosovo, where Palmer stated that the U.S. strongly supports the dialogue on the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, which should end in mutual recognition. He also pointed out the strong and lasting nature of the U.S. and Kosovo partnership.

“We support Kosovo’s European perspective. We wish to see Kosovo integrated into the European and Euro-Atlantic community. We support the government’s goals in fighting corruption and organized crime and promoting the rule of law. We wish to be there as strong partners,” Palmer said in an interview with RTK.

He also said that the U.S. is not on the margins of this process. “We are directly engaged and involved in supporting the negotiations. This is actually a part of the message of my joint visit with Miroslav Lajcak, meant to emphasize how deeply dedicated to the process and how deeply involved and engaged in it the U.S. is,” Palmer said.

Lajcak stated that the year 2021 has the potential to be a good year for relations between the EU and the Western Balkans.