Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti did not meet today in Brussels, dashing hopes for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, said the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, quoted by Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
It was not a tripartite meeting, Borrell said after bilateral talks with the two leaders, although there was originally planned to be a meeting between him, Vucic and Kurti.
The Serbian president said that his bilateral meeting today with Borel and with the EU envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Miroslav Lajčak, was successful, but a trilateral meeting with the Kosovo prime minister did not take place because Kurti "didn't dare or didn't want" to meet with Vucic, Tanyug agency reported.
Borrell admitted that the talks he had separately with the two leaders today had made no progress.
”Unfortunately, no progress was made today on the issue of the implementation of the agreement,” said Borel, quoted by France Press.
Talks should resume next week in Brussels at the level of negotiators, he added.
Serbia does not recognize the independence of its former province of Kosovo, declared in 2008. The two countries are conducting negotiations to normalize their relations with the mediation of the EU.
In March 2023, when the international community hoped that progress had been made in normalizing Belgrade-Pristina relations during a summit in Ohrid, North Macedonia, the Serbian president refused to sign the agreement. Since then, neither Kosovo nor Serbia have fulfilled what was agreed.
Borel, quoted by the Kosovo edition "Koha ditore", said earlier today that Kurti had set three conditions for the continuation of discussions - signing of the basic agreement on the normalization of relations by the respective prime ministers, withdrawal of the objections submitted in December by the then Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and the handover to Kosovo authorities of Milan Radojcic, who is suspected of the armed attack in Banska, northern Kosovo, on September 24, when a group of about 30 armed Serbs attacked Kosovo police, killing one Kosovo policeman and three of the gunmen. attackers.
Today's scheduled meeting between Vucic and Kurti was supposed to be the first since September 2023, and to resume high-level dialogue marred by numerous setbacks and fruitless meetings.
On the eve of the meeting between the two leaders, Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said in an interview with AFP that Belgrade is ready to make "compromises".