PRISTINA – Candidate for the new US ambassador in Pristina, Philip Cosnett, said that “it is important that Serbia and Kosovo come up with creative solutions, but that formulation does not include exchange of territories”.
“We believe that it is important that both governments go forward with creative solutions for long-term tensions between Kosovo and Serbia”, stated Cosnett in front of US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where the process of confirming his nomination for ambassador is currently in progress.
According to the Voice of America, Cosnett thinks that it is important that both countries are able to discuss new ideas, but, he emphasises, “that is not a code for the exchange of territories, or anything similar.
He added that the US position towards Kosovo has not changed, after the Committee’s co-chair, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, asked whether he possesses any knowledge about that kind of change, noting that Serbia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić suggested something of the sort after he recently met Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-low Jared Kushner in Washington.
Cosnett answered that he knows nothing about that meeting, having heard about it for the first time.
Recurring mentions of the idea of border correction also lead to the statement of US Embassy in Pristina for the news site Gazeta Express, which emphasised that this country will leave the two sides to achieve an agreement on their own, but that it would be made clear to Belgrade and Pristina that they do not have “an unlimited freedom of action”.
“Apart from the space that plans of president of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi, president of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and minister Ivica Dačić leave for the destabilisation, sides in the dialogue will have an unlimited freedom to decide about the future of their countries”, the Embassy stated, adding that it will carefully and seriously monitor the agreement reached by two sides.
“That does not imply an unlimited freedom of action”, stated the Embassy.
The Embassy emphasised that it will let the sides to reach an agreement of their own, but that it will announce its position once the agreement is finalised.