Serbia needs regular relations with Kosovo however nonetheless will not signal any settlement with it, President Aleksandar Vucic mentioned Sunday, a day after he verbally agreed to implement a Western-backed plan for the normalization of ties.
Serbia needs to affix the European Union, and a situation of membership is that it normalizes relations with ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008 however which Belgrade nonetheless considers a Serbian province.
Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti agreed to implement normalization steps at a gathering with EU officers in a North Macedonian lake resort Saturday, though no doc was signed and the EU mentioned it had needed to go additional.
“Serbia wants to have normal relations with Kosovo. We want to travel, we want to do business, you cannot live isolated behind 100 meters walls,” Vucic instructed reporters Sunday.
“I didn’t want to sign the agreement on the implementing annex last night nor the EU-backed agreement (in Brussels last month),” Vucic instructed reporters. “I don’t want to sign any international legally binding documents with Kosovo because Serbia does not recognize its independence.”
Late on Saturday night, Kurti mentioned the settlement represented “de facto recognition.”
Under their verbal settlement, Kosovo dedicated to giving larger autonomy to Serb-majority areas, whereas Serbia agreed to not block Kosovo’s membership in worldwide organizations.
The EU pledged to arrange a donor convention for each nations, with the disbursement of economic support depending on steps to enhance ties.
The EU’s international coverage chief, Josep Borrell, mentioned on Saturday after the 12-hour assembly that the settlement reached had fallen wanting a “more ambitious and detailed” EU proposal that the events have been unable to agree on.
He mentioned Kosovo had lacked flexibility on the substance of the proposals, whereas Serbia had refused to signal the doc though Belgrade was “fully ready to implement” it.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
