The US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, James O’Brien, told the Serbian public broadcaster that he demands that all agreements reached in the dialogue for the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia be respected.
In the interview for RTS, O’Brien said that regarding the establishment of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority, it is important to respect the agreements. In this regard, he said that the Constitutional Court of Kosovo should pass a draft statute for the Association.
The senior American official also said that there should be a broader discussion regarding the integration of Serbs living in Kosovo.
“The association is an important step. It is important to mark progress even before the formation of the Association.It is important that people live normally, marriages are registered, children are born and we work on all of these simultaneously. The bonds have been in place since 2015, when [the Association Agreement] was signed. I can’t offer you a time frame, but the most important thing is that Serbs live like European citizens”, said O’Brien.
Since 2013, Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on the establishment of the Association. In 2015, the Agreement on the principles for the establishment of this association was also reached. But the agreements were never implemented. Kosovo has expressed its shyness that such an ethnic association could affect the functioning of the state.
Likewise, recently the Government of Kosovo has undertaken several actions in the north inhabited by a majority of Serbs, including the closure of some institutions that functioned according to the Serbian system.
The international factor, including the US, has described these actions as unilateral and uncoordinated.
O’Brien said that for non-coordination of Pristina’s actions with Washington, “there are consequences, and the biggest consequence was that the states in Europe did not enable the admission of Kosovo to the Council of Europe. All this because of lack of coordination”.
The American official also welcomed the decision of the Government of Kosovo to open the border crossing point in Merdare for Serbian goods, a stop that was set in July 2023.
On October 20, O’Brien stayed in Serbia, where he met with the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić. It is reported that he will stay in Kosovo on Monday.
