Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has encouraged a swift resumption of Kosovo-Serbia dialogue in order for Kosovo to join the EU and NATO.
During a press conference, Thaci also expressed his optimism that an agreement with Serbia will be reached within this year.
“Kosovo is clear regarding what it wants from the dialogue,” Thaci stated, following Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s statement on his lack of clarity on the essence of the dialogue. However, Thaci didn’t clarify further.
“Most importantly, Kosovo is in this process together with the US and other allies. We need to move as soon as possible in this direction and become part of the EU and NATO.”
He reiterated his satisfaction in the new government lifting reciprocity measures with Serbia, which he dubbed a “pretext Serbia used to avoid dialogue,” and asserted that Kosovo was “ready” to resume dialogue.
“I also want to underline that the decision of the [new] government was followed by a positive reaction from the United States. At once, MCC funding was unblocked. The scholarships that were suspended will now be given out again. The latest decisions that brought about these results proved that we mustn’t delay, that we must take important decisions. But they also proved that causes like the [border] demarcation and the tariffs [on Serbian trade goods] were populist ones, and wasted Kosovo’s time, damaged our country’s institutions and image,” Thaci said.
