MUNICH – The US Special Envoy for Kosovo-Serbia negotiations Richard Grenell met separately with the Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić while at Munich Security Conference, N1 reported.
The US President Donald Trump special envoy for the talks has told an American radio Salem Radio Network that some progress is made in the Belgrade – Pristina dialogue on the normalization of relations, but both sides are interested only in regulating economic relationship, N1 reported.
„What I’ve learned in the talks to both sides and the private sector is that they only want to normalise the economic relations“, Grenell said.
He stressed that both sides had a long way ahead in trying to normalise all the relations adding that Trump’s administration in its usual way is trying to push the two sides toward reconciliation, without imposing its ideas on them.
Thaçi: Grenell gave a new dynamic in Dialogue
On his Twitter account, Thaçi wrote that dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia has taken on a new dynamic and thanked the engagement of the US and appointment of Ambassador Richard Grenell as President Trump’s Special Envoy for the process.
„We will move to new agreements following that on Pristina-Belgrade flights. We will have other engagements for the railway line. We will work as institutions to reach a final agreement as two independent states. It is a fact that we have as US-backed dynamic, things that were not imagined two decades ago are happening“, Thaçi said.
According to RTK Thaçi addressed critically of the EU for not granting Kosovo visa liberalization.
„Kosovo feels disappointed and betrayed by the EU because Kosovo has fulfilled all its obligations and there is no visa liberalization. The EU has no political decision because of the lack of unity among EU states“, Thaçi told.
Vučić: the US insisting on an urgent lifting of Pristina’s taxes
After meeting with Richard Grenell, Vučić said that the US is insisting very strongly and firmly on an urgent lifting of Pristina’s taxes on Serbian goods.
“The fact that the Americans are insisting very strongly and firmly that the taxes be lifted immediately, urgently, and that the discussions between us and Pristina be continued, is exceptionally important”, Vučić told.
He announced that the Head of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo Marko Đurić would sign a framework agreement on a rail link between Belgrade and Pristina on Friday in Munich. He stressed that the agreement is very significant as it will enable free movement of people and goods.