• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Thaci, Vucic In Belgium For Talks On Normalizing Kosovo-Serbia Ties

RFE/RL's Balkan Service June 24, 2018

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, have come together in the Belgian capital for EU-mediated talks aimed at normalizing bilateral relations.

Ahead of the June 24 meeting in Brussels, the EU said its foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who is hosting the talks, and the two presidents will "take stock of existing agreements, inform of achievements to date as well as discuss the next steps in view of an intensive period ahead."

Serbia's former province of Kosovo declared independence in 2008 and is recognized as a sovereign state by more than 110 countries but not by Belgrade and Moscow.

Both Serbia and Kosovo are pursuing membership in the EU, and the bloc wants an agreement to normalize ties completed by the end of 2019.

Earlier this week, Thaci said the upcoming negotiations with Serbia would be hard but necessary if Kosovo wants to become part of the United Nations, the European Union, and NATO.

Speaking at a news conference in Pristina on June 20, Kosovo's president called for the involvement of institutional leaders, representatives of all parties, experts, civil society, and the media in what he called the final phase of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

"I am convinced that the time has come now, after 20 years of negotiations with Serbia, to sign a historic agreement between Kosovo and Serbia that will end a tragic era that lasted over a century", Thaci said.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/thaci-vucic-belgium-talks- normalizing-kosovo-serbia-ties/29316678.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.