No recognition of Kosovo, Serbia vows — Analysis

Serbia is always open for compromises but in accordance with its constitution and UN Security Council Resolution 12,44. This was stated by President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday, after meeting EU, French and German special Envoys. The EU and the US have pressured Belgrade to recognize the breakaway province of Kosovo, which the documents Vucic mentioned treat as Serbia’s sovereign territory.
The talks were about Serbia’s future, “and there will be no recognition of Kosovo,” Vucic posted on Instagram after meeting with the EU’s Miroslav Lajcak, France’s Emanuel Bonne and Germany’s Jens Plettner.
“No surrender! Long live Serbia,”He added.
Lajcak, the EU special representative for the Western Balkans is Bonne. Berlin recently appointed Plettner and Bonne to help him in his effort to have Belgrade give up its province.
Bonne, Lajcak and Plettner flew from Belgrade to Pristina. There they met with Albin Kurti, the prime minister of Kosovo. They stayed for two hours.

NATO took control of Kosovo after an air battle lasting 78 days against Yugoslavia. This was in support of the ethnic Albanian insurgents. UNSCR 1244 authorized the presence of a NATO-led peacekeeping force, but affirmed Serbia’s territorial integrity. With Western support, the provisory ethnic Albanian government declared its independence in 2008. The US, most allies, and many others have acknowledged Kosovo’s independence, but the UN, Serbia, Russia and China have not. Five EU members have not recognized Kosovo as independent.
That has not stopped Brussels from making Serbia’s recognition of the breakaway province a prerequisite for any talks about eventual membership. Gabriel Escobar, the US ambassador to Serbia, caused controversy last month when he stated that it was time for negotiations about eventual membership. “move away from the narrative that Kosovo is Serbia, and move toward the narrative that Kosovo and Serbia are Europe”To ensure a successful future.
The EU is not actively looking to expand at the moment, but Vucic insists his government’s policy is to join the bloc someday – while preserving military neutrality and free trade with Russia and China in the meantime.
Tensions simmering between Serbia and Kosovo rekindled at the beginning August when Kurti tried outlawing Serbian papers and plates. The US ambassador urged Kurti to postpone the move, but he promised that he would eventually implement the measures.
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