Vucic Says He Insisted on Implementation of Earlier Agreements, but Kurti Would Not Accept

Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC/DS)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in Brussels after a new round of dialogue with Pristina on Feb. 27 that he had insisted that all previous agreements needed to be carried out, but that Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti had not been ready to accept that at this time.

After a two-hour meeting with Kurti, European Union High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell and EU special representative to the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak, Vucic told reporters that he believed "there will be many more meetings in the coming period."

"We should see each other in North Macedonia on March 18. Borrell will be visiting the region then, and in the meantime we'll be speaking with Lajcak about things to implement. The EU's announcement will discuss the necessity of implementing all earlier agreements. I insisted on the Community of Serb Municipalities. Kurti wasn't ready to accept that now, and we'll see if he'll be ready in future," Vucic said.

"After all the big talk -- nothing special, but it's good and important that we talked. I believe we'll be able to overcome unilateral moves that would threaten the safety of people on the ground and I hope we'll be able to work on what we termed the implementation of earlier agreements," Vucic went on to say.

He said Kurti came to the meeting "with the idea that something would be signed," but that that was not discussed and that nothing like that had been accepted. "I'm waiting to see first of all the implementation plan about the obligations reached earlier," he said, stressing that the Community of Serb Municipalities came first.