The United States has expressed its strong support for the talks between Kosovo and Serbia, which were held under the EU-facilitated dialogue on February 27. According to Ned Price, a spokesperson for the State Department, the talks were a “good step forward,” but he also acknowledged that “difficult work remains.”
Price stressed that an agreement on the implementation annex is essential to the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia under the EU proposal. He also highlighted the importance of progress towards establishing the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities, which he described as “critical to building Kosovo’s future as a sovereign, multiethnic and independent country integrated into Euro-Atlantic structures.”
US Deputy Assistant Secretary Gabriel Escobar has emphasized that the European proposal, also known as the French-German Agreement, is primarily focused on normalization rather than mutual recognition.
While Escobar pointed out that the European proposal is not focused on “mutual recognition,” the US, according to Blinken’s top diplomat for the Western Balkans, “haven’t lost sight of what ultimately we’d like to happen in the Western Balkans.”
