Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias held separate conferences in Kosovo on Sunday with its President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti forward of the newest spherical of talks on normalization between Kosovo and Serbia.
Osmani’s workplace stated a normalization settlement between Kosovo and Serbia which is anticipated to be signed in North Macedonia on March 18 needs to be in accordance with the structure of Kosovo.
According to the assertion, Osmani expects the settlement to contribute to long-term peace and stability within the area and normalize relations between the 2 international locations.
Dendias first met with Osmani and later with Kurti at a working dinner.
Kurti knowledgeable Dendias about Kosovo’s expectations from the Kosovo-Serbia negotiations to be held in Ohrid, North Macedonia on March 18.
As a part of his go to, Dendias additionally met together with his Kosovo counterpart Donika Gervalla-Schwarz.
Greece is among the many international locations that don’t acknowledge Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia unilaterally in 2008 as an impartial state.
Kosovo, predominantly inhabited by Albanians, broke away from Serbia in 1999 and declared independence in 2008. It aspires to European Union membership and goals to realize a visa-free regime for the EU zone.
But Serbia has not acknowledged Kosovo’s independence and sees its former province as its territory.
The EU introduced on Feb. 27 that Serbia and Kosovo had agreed to signal a proposal to normalize ties after a gathering between Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
The subsequent spherical of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina shall be held on March 18 in North Macedonia.
Launched in 2011, the EU-led Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue goals to discover a mutually agreeable resolution for disputes within the framework of a legally binding settlement.
Following a flareup in border tensions final summer time, Miroslav Lajcak, the EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, introduced the bloc’s newest proposal on normalizing relations in September.
The EU requires Kosovo and Serbia to achieve a closing settlement and resolve disputes to progress of their integration into the bloc.
Most UN member states, together with the US, the UK, France, Germany and Türkiye, acknowledged Kosovo as a separate nation after it declared independence from Serbia 15 years in the past.
Serbia, nonetheless, continues to treat it as its territory.
Vucic stated in October that Germany and France had supplied to expedite Serbia’s EU membership course of if it acknowledged Kosovo’s independence and allowed it to develop into a member of worldwide organizations.
According to the leaked proposal, Kosovo ought to, for its half, enable the institution of a union of Serbian municipalities within the north, the place many ethnic Serbs reside.
EU officers hope to finish negotiations on the plan this spring, with Brussels facilitating the talks.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
