Vučić has stated that he expects the EU to ask Serbia not to oppose Kosovo’s membership in the UN, while not having to formally recognize Kosovo’s independence. However, the EU has no idea what to offer Serbia in exchange, apart from EU membership in a few years which is not enough, Vučić has claimed.
“I am not able to guess the proposal of the White House, but I can guess what the proposal of the EU could be. I think their idea now is to tell us that we do not oppose Kosovo’s membership in the UN, but they do not know what to offer us. That is, we do not have to formally recognize Kosovo, but we should not oppose them getting a seat in the UN. I expect Europe to say that we will be members in a few years […] but that is not enough. Serbia must be offered much more,” he stated.
Vučić talked at length about the dialogue with Kosovo in an interview with Serbian daily “Večernje novosti”.
Regarding an EU-US race on who will facilitate the talks, Vučić has said that they are officially led by the European Union, and “you cannot change that overnight.” He added that Serbia would like closer cooperation between the EU and the White House, including the presence of the EU envoy to the June 27 meeting in Washington.
He then recalled that he talked with Putin on the Kosovo issue: “Then we will talk to our friends, to see what they think. I talked on the phone with Putin for a long time about Kosovo and Metohija. He was well prepared. We have some new circumstances, so we’ll see.”
On Kosovo leaders’ claims that they are going to Washington to get a deal that would guarantee recognition of Kosovo by Serbia, Vučić recalled President Trump’s letter to him and Kosovo’s President Thaci, in which Trump wrote: “We believe that the mutual recognition should be the central element of that normalisation.”
“I do not think that America will change its position, nor will Germany and France. But, will we agree and tell Thaci: “Well done, you got everything!” All I can say is that it won’t happen like that. It will be difficult and we will be exposed to the heaviest pressures. Regardless of whether it will happen in Brussels or the White House,” Vučić said.
Asked whether land swap would be more probable if President Trump got more directly involved in the issue, against Germany opposition, Vučić said: “I don’t think that’s possible. The EU is [engaged] in dialogue, and they have spent three years explaining that any idea contrary to Kosovo’s independence is impossible […] A difficult period is ahead, we will have to take care of pulling the strings between the USA and the EU, but we will have to be flexible […]”
