The US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, James O’Brien, said that he expects that the new government of Serbia, which will emerge from the December 17 parliamentary elections, will respect the agreements reached with Kosovo.

O’Brien said that the United States will closely monitor the progress of the elections and expressed confidence that they will be free and fair. “The Serbian people can vote for whoever they want. What we expect from the government is to stick to the agreements it has reached regarding Kosovo”, said the American diplomat for the Voice of America.

The senior US official added that recent months have seen progress on some of the most contentious issues between the two countries.

He said that the future of the region depends on close relations with the common European market and the membership of Kosovo and Serbia in the EU, a process that he said could take several years.

The American diplomat said that this is the way the EU has operated since its beginnings and that this method has given results for many neighboring countries that have had tense relations over the years.

Kosovo-Serbia tensions reached their highest point at the end of September, after an attack on the Kosovo police by a group of armed Serbs, where a police officer and three of the perpetrators of the attack were killed. The US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia said that the parties have a lot of work to do to move forward towards normalization on the path they agreed to last March in Ohrid.