On Monday, January 23, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić will address the nation to make public the situation in negotiations with the US and the EU on Kosovo. At the end of the working week, he met with five emissaries from the West, who pressed him to normalize relations with Pristina. International mediators are already welcoming Serbia’s “pivot” towards a normalization plan. In Belgrade, they say that “the West is putting Serbia against the firing line.” With details – the correspondent of “Kommersant” in the Balkans Gennady Sysoev.
Aleksandar Vučić announced his address to the nation on January 23 last Saturday. “Yesterday was one of the most difficult days for our country,” the president outlined the importance of the moment and the subject of the forthcoming address. On Friday, he met with five emissaries of the leading Western countries for the Balkans: EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak, as well as US Special Representatives Gabriel Escobar, France Emmanuel Bonn, Germany Jens Pletner and Italy Francesco Talo. They arrived in Belgrade for the sole purpose of persuading the Serbian president to normalize relations with Kosovo on the basis of a Franco-German plan that would include Pristina’s membership in international organizations, including the UN. Aleksandar Vučić made it clear that on Monday he would state Belgrade’s position on this issue.
However, immediately after the talks with the Western Five, the president announced that Belgrade was “ready to accept the concept and work on the implementation of the European plan to normalize relations with Kosovo.”
He only stipulated that “the Community of Serbian Municipalities must be urgently formed.” Yes, and the EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak, who led the delegation of Western emissaries, stated with satisfaction: the Serbian president “demonstrated a responsible approach and readiness to make difficult decisions in the interests of peace and the European future of Serbia.”
Aleksandar Vucic revealed in general terms the essence of the mechanism that allowed the parties to find a common language. According to him, at a meeting with him, Western diplomats “unambiguously presented the problems and challenges that Serbia would face if it disagreed with the proposed plan.”
Milovan Dretsun, head of the committee on Kosovo in the Serbian parliament, spoke even more frankly on this score. “The West is putting Serbia against the firing line,” he declared.
Milovan Dretsun also revealed some important details in the position and argumentation of the West. According to him, the West hopes to “liberate Serbia from Russian support (on Kosovo) and provide it with the opportunity to pursue an independent policy” by a speedy solution to the Kosovo problem through the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.
At the first stage, as the Serbian politician said, the West intends to persuade Belgrade to recognize a certain sovereignty of Kosovo, and Pristina – Serb autonomy within the Community of Serbian municipalities. “This would open a Euro-Atlantic path for Kosovo. Therefore, Serbia is expected not to oppose Kosovo’s membership in international organizations, the EU, Euro-Atlantic structures,” Milovan Dretsun explained. Then, according to him, “the United States and other leading Western countries could break the resistance of five EU states and four NATO members that do not recognize Kosovo’s independence, and push them to accept Kosovo into their ranks.”
Belgrade’s position on the Kosovo plan proposed by the emissaries will become clearer after the Serbian president’s address to the nation. But international mediators are already talking about Serbia’s “pivot” towards accepting a plan to normalize relations with Pristina. Moreover, after the Western Five’s talks with Kosovo’s premier Albin Kurti, which preceded the five emissaries’ visit to Belgrade, Miroslav Lajcak cautiously rebuked Pristina, remarking that he “was expecting a greater understanding of the European plan.”
However, according to Kommersant’s European diplomatic sources, the mediators “do not expect serious problems with coaxing Pristina and expect to organize direct negotiations between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Alexander Vučić by the end of January in order to consolidate the agreements reached in recent days.”