Trump invites peaceful agreements to “Rose Garden”, while quietly working for peace between Kosovo and Serbia

Trump has made an extremely direct invitation to Kosovo and Serbian leaders at the time when the hostilities of the past 10 years threaten to explode in armed conflict, while his administration is working on hidden channels to reduce tensions with Russia-backed Serbia.
Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has made a diplomatic trip to Berlin, unreported last month, where he met US Ambassador Richard Green, a reliable man of President Trump. Thaci pledged that he would commit to changing courses to sanctioning tariffs in all Serbian goods.
In a conversation with the Washington Post” on Friday, carried out in English with electronic exchanges, Thaci said he is “ready to consider removing tariffs if Kosovo is given a clear way towards reaching a final peace agreement with Serbia”.

The taxes imposed last month -- a step that has angered Serbia and Russia -- and has alarmed the European Union ʹ have been associated with threats on the part of Kosovo to establish Armed Forces contrary to agreements with NATO, which still holds a defence force in Kosovo a decade after the split from Serbia and forming the sovereign state. Serbia has never recognised Kosovo's independence and its capital, Belgrade, has warned it could intervene with armed forces because of recent disputes. Russia considers that the vital role the US has played in establishing this state is a mixture of non-legigration in its vicinity.

“Yes, taxes are exceptional mass”, Thaci has indicated. Our “Our readiness is enhanced if we feel that our partners support us and guide us in this matter. For my part, I will assure the people of Kosovo that these guidelines and such support exist”, Thaci expressed the view that has not been reported before and that comes in time of political risks after increasing nationalist tensions. He cannot remove the taxes imposed by parliament himself, as well as face domestic objections from Kosovo's prime minister, often seen as his political rival.
But, the United States sees its step as a first step towards ending the <x0 pass for a” that has developed in recent months and a potential return to what seems to be the most productive effort in this decade towards a peaceful agreement.

Kosovo's “My friends and I share the clear belief that we have before we have an international challenge in the sense of doing what our conscience asks us to do and that it is our historic duty to make possible and true peace”, Thaci said.

Trump has sent personal letters to leaders of the two countries last month, urging them to return to peaceful talks and offer an invitation to go to the White House together.

Although the White House has not spoken much more about this step, Thaci and Serbia's President Aleksandar Vuciq have published their own copies.
“Trying to seize this opportunity would be a tragic setback, as another case of sweeping peace would hardly appear in the near future”, Trump wrote to Kosovo's leader. “We are ready to help your efforts to reach an agreement that balances the interests of Kosovo and Serbia. Such an agreement is now close and vulnerable. I welcome the opportunity to wait for you and President Alexander Vuciq at the White House and celebrate what would be the historic agreement”, says the letter sent to Thaci.
Both leaders have indicated that the letters were taken as a sign that Trump is willing to take on a more active role as a mediator, although American officials have taken the stance of direct non-compliance.
“To resolve complex and difficult issues such as conflicts such as this lasting generation and centuries, powerful leadership” is required, Vuciq said in the interview.

“The acquisition of the Great and influential powers in the region is mandatory. As leader of one of the largest nations in the world, deeply evolved in the region, I am sure that President Trump can make significant contributions to resolving this” conflict.
Vuciq voiced scepticism that Thaci is sincere about changing courses around tariffs, and said Thaci and his prime minister are playing “The good police officer”.

“Try to put us in our position”, Vuciq said. “What would you like if you were us? We want the best possible relationship, reliable partnership, as well as some room for breathing so we can see our interests. In return, we offer genuine and reliable support for peace and development in this part of Europe, as well as mutual respect”.

Green called for normalisation of Kosovo-Serbia relations, as well as direct negotiations between the two countries at the meeting with Thaci, an American official says. It also raised concerns about homosexual rights in Kosovo, including low penalties for cases of violence against members of the LGB community, the American official added. He hasn't met Vucinciqi individual. Green was a spokesman and adviser to John Bolton at the time he was in the United Nations at the time of George W. Bush, while now is the Councilman for National Security at the White House. He was the conservative foreign policy commentator before taking office in Berlin last year.

Thaci said he has close relations with the American ambassador to Pristina, Kosovo's capital, but has met Grenelli divided as the “Trump's European man”. He has travelled to Berlin with three aides on December 21st, days after Trump's letter.

President Thaci and I talked about the importance of making long-term decisions instead of short-term reactions. I am pleased that he agreed and vowed to work to end taxes that have been put late on Serbia's” products, Yerenelli said in a statement to The Washington Post. “This step would help send the right signal that he is serious about the negotiations, and this helps build confidence between the” parties.
Thaci called Trump's communication <x0novator” and said US support for Kosovo is vital for its future. The 2008 birth of Kosovo was the project behind which many conservative Bush advisers were passionately given, some of whom now work for Trump, but Trump himself so far had not shared the most detailed view of the conflict in the Balkans. In August, Bolton has indicated that the United States will not oppose the mutual reconciliation of territories then mentioned by Serbia and Kosovo as a way to reach the final agreement.
This puts the Trump administration in front of Germany and several other EU countries fearing that changing borders could reopen the conflicts that have divided the Balkans in the 1990s. But talk of the big exchange between Kosovo and Serbia faded in the autumn, and each country stiffened its stances even more.

Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, writing on The Washington Post on November 28th, defended the 100 per cent tax for Serbian goods as a safeguard clause “in the name of free trade, national security and national national national interests”.
Trump did not mention the issue of exchange of territories in his letter, but the language used indicates that he would accept change of borders if both sides agree on it.

President Trump's “Lerra has made many things clear in a situation that until recently was marked with growing feelings of confusion and concerns caused by a range of attitudes, statements and ideas regarding Kosovo and Serbia”, Thaci said.
He called for bilateral talks “with the US in a leading role in co-ordinating the international input on the final Pacific Agreement that will bring recognition of Kosovo from Serbia”.

Daniel Vajrich, once senior adviser to Europe and Eurasia at the American Senate Foreign Affairs Commission, welcomes Trump's intervention.
“Exists a potential, a real possibility, to resolve one of the last remaining territorial conflicts opened in Europe”, said Vajdic, head of the strategic consulting firm “Youktown Solutions” and associate member of “Athlantic Council”. The US's “strategic interest is to find solutions to the conflict Russia uses to blackmail Serbia and force it to submit as well as to keep the Balkans permanently destabilised”, Vajdic says. The resolution of the Kosovo issue would eliminate Russia's influence on Serbia and its influence in the Balkans. Achieving this should be one of US's top interests in Europe”.

(This is the original article published by The Washington Post)