U.S. Official: U.S. Expects Peaceful, Fair Elections in Serbia

Voting (Beta/Dragan Gojic)

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien told on Dec. 14 the Voice of America (VoA) that the U.S. expected elections in Serbia to be peaceful and fair, while it expected the new government in Belgrade to continue talks on normalizing relations with Pristina and its road of European integrations.

The OSCE has an electoral mission in Serbia with many members and will carefully watch how the elections are conducted. "We expect international comments with regard to how the election unfolded," O'Brien said.

"We expect the government to adhere to the agreements that it has reached with Kosovo. In the past several months, we have seen certain progress there. It is necessary to continue this when the new government steps into office and we have to see further progress," he added, stressing that the future of the Balkan region lay in the unified European market and the EU.

Speaking on the continuation of negotiations on normalizing relations between Belgrade and Pristina, O'Brien said that the U.S. expected tensions in northern Kosovo, in areas with large Serbian populations to be lowered. O'Brien said that one measure for reducing tensions was the return of Serbs to public institutions.