Escobar: Final Agreement between Serbia, Kosovo Possible This Year

Gabriel Escobar (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/EV)

U.S. special envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar said in Belgrade on March 16 that a final agreement on normalizing relations between Serbia and Kosovo could be reached by the end of the year.

"I would like to see an agreement this calendar year. I think that this is completely possible," Escobar told reporters at the U.S. embassy at the end of his visit to Belgrade, when asked when a final agreement on normalizing relations could be expected.

Escobar, the deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state, said that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti were expected in Ohrid to "seek out a way to overcome obstacles and leave the meeting with the conviction that the talks will be continued until a solution." He said that the purpose of his visit, ahead of a meeting between Vucic and Kurti in Ohrid on March 18, "Is to work alongside political leaders in the region on finding a way to move forward" with regard to the European roadmap to normalization.

"The U.S. believes that the agreement gives one of the best possibilities for the region to move forward, and for peaceful conditions to be created for all of the people in the region. We would like both sides to be very serious in searching for these possibilities, to find a way to be constructive and flexible, to have a vision and use the chance that they are being offered not just by Europe but the U.S. and transatlantic community as a whole," Escobar said.