Under expanding force from his US and European allies to achieve an settlement with Serbia, Kosovo’s Prime Minister warned on Wednesday he would now not give in to “blackmail”.
Relations between Belgrade and its ex-province have lurched from disaster to disaster and Western powers are prepared to finish the cycle of tensions on this nook of southeastern Europe.
The closing date for Kosovo to seal a pact with its previous enemy is speedy drawing near.
In an interview with AFP, Kosovan PM Albin Kurti claimed the USA and EU had demanded that Belgrade and Pristina strike an settlement via March.
For months, European and American diplomats have shuttled between the 2 capitals for this goal, he defined.
At the guts of the tensions between the pair is Belgrade’s refusal to recognise Kosovo’s independence.
The former Serbian province, house to an Albanian majority, broke away in 2008, a decade after a bloody struggle that most effective ended with a NATO bombing marketing campaign led via the USA.
The fifteenth anniversary of Kosovo’s declaration of independence is on 17 February.
According to Kurti, the “centrepiece” of any pact should be the popularity of Kosovo via Serbia, which with the beef up of its Russian best friend, blocks Pristina from taking a spot on the UN.
“Our biggest obstacle is that Belgrade insists on its quest for a time machine,” insisted the Kosovan chief.
But “it’s not possible. Kosovo is an independent country and it would be better for Serbia to recognise it”, he endured, claiming this is able to boost up Belgrade’s European integration.
Western powers, led via the USA, need the small Balkan territory of one.8 million folks to create an affiliation of municipalities the place individuals of the Serbian minority are living. This thought was once first proposed below an settlement concluded below the eyes of Brussels a decade in the past.
Kurti claims this might quantity to making a probably subversive Serbian energy in parallel to Kosovan establishments.
Kosovo’s Serbian minority, round 120,000 folks, refuses loyalty to the Pristina govt. Encouraged via Belgrade, there have been protests and scattered violent incidents on the finish of closing 12 months, specifically within the north.
“We cannot be blackmailed,” Kurti mentioned. “We cannot be afraid. We are a brave people who demand fair treatment, equality and mutual recognition.”
“It’s not fair to put pressure on the most pro-European, the most pro-American, the most democratic country in the Western Balkans,” he mentioned. “It is Belgrade that should be under pressure. Serbia is not a normal country. Serbia doesn’t know where its borders are”.
Serbian President Alexander Vucic additionally complained not too long ago about being burdened via the West to normalise family members with Kosovo.
“They said: you have to accept this plan, or else you will have to face an interruption of the European accession process, a halt and withdrawal of investments and a series of economic and political measures which will do a lot of harm to the Republic of Serbia ,” he instructed Serbian tv.
