Vucic: Serbia Ready to Accept New Concept to Resolve Kosovo Issue

Aleksandar Vucic, Belgrade, Jan.4 2023 (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said after a Jan. 20 meeting in Belgrade with the European Union’s, American, French, German and Italian representatives that Serbia was ready to accept their concept, and that it was working to implement the agreement that they had suggested.

Vucic told reporters that when “an important issue” in the agreement was discussed at the meeting, he shared his concerns and reservations, but declined to discuss it, saying that the agreement was not public yet. Vucic said that as the Serbian president “I face the problems and challenges that will lie ahead of Serbia if the plan for the dispute with Kosovo is rejected.”

“Given the circumstances, we asked the American, French, German, Italian and EU representatives to help us all overcome the turbulence that we have been witnessing in Kosovo and Metohija, because we believe it is high time that the Community of Serb Municipalities be established, as it was not only promised, but an agreement was signed for that purpose 10 years ago,” Vucic said, adding that it was a urgent matter, and that only when it was resolved could the return of Serbs to their posts in Kosovo institutions be discussed.

Vucic met with the EU special representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, his U.S. counterpart responsible for the Western Balkan, Gabriel Escobar, foreign policy advisors to the French president and the German chancellor, Emmanuel Bonne and Jens Ploetner, and a diplomatic advisor to the Italian prime minister, Francesco Talo. They previously met with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Pristina.