Serbia and Kosovo hold rare talks to de-escalate Balkan tensions
Wartime rivals Serbia and Kosovo are holding high-level crisis talks on Thursday which European Union mediators hope will de-escalate growing tensions in the Balkans, where Russia has tried to further increase its influence amid the war in Ukraine.
Hopes that the rare face-to-face meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, to be held in Brussels, could produce a major breakthrough are slim.
But officials overseeing the decades-old deadlock between the two neighbors hope that it would at least reduce the increasingly war-mongering rhetoric coming from both sides.
“All open issues will be addressed and should be addressed through the EU-facilitated dialogue,” European Commission spokesperson for foreign affairs Nabila Massrali told reporters. “Both parties must end their hostilities at this point” and “act responsibly.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who separately met Vucic and Kurti in Brussels on Wednesday, said NATO-led troops stationed in Kosovo have strengthened their presence on Kosovo’s northern border with Serbia because of the current tensions.
"But of course, we will act when needed and we will act in a proportionate way because our main aim is to help to reduce tensions and to ensure all communities to freedom of movement, to the safety of all communities, including, of course, the Serbs in Kosovo,” Stoltenberg said.
He urged “all parties to engage positively and constructively in the latest round of the EU talks tomorrow.”
Kosovo is a former province of Serbia, which has refused to recognize the country's 2008 declaration of independence. The European Union has overseen years of talks to normalize their ties.
Vucic said it was “a lie" that Serbia wants to
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