Former ambassador says border discussion option not on dialogue table

Former Kosovo Ambassador to Brussels Bernard Nikaj has said Brussels and Washington have not had and have no other access to the final agreement between Kosovo and Serbia.

I believe that this general disk about dialogue is loaded with many elements that at the time are not properly clarified and interpreted by different parties in different ways. I don't think he had any different approaches from Brussels and Washington. There were, and there were, and there were, like, two sets of schools of thinking, a school of thought that is against something and a school of thinking that if the parties agree, then we tell them that certain solutions don't work”.

What's important is that once and for all we put in our public discourse in Kosovo about what we are. For many years we have heard many opinions against which solution we are, but we have not heard opinions about which solution we are”.

He has said it is not real for Serbia to change the approach it has had so far, until it has added that the US and the EU ask Kosovo to sit at the table with Serbia and agree on the final agreement.

We all agree that the optimism solution for Kosovo is to insist that everything we've had to give in Ahtisaari's time and that we have nothing to talk about and hope that Serbia and the International Community wakes up one morning and says we've been wrong for the last 15 years and now we accept Kosovo, but that's not going to happen. It is unrealistic to expect this, since all of our EU and US friends have told us in Pristina, including new US President-elect Joe Biden, that we should sit at the table seriously and deal with a stable agreement that includes mutual recognition from both countries. This is what all our international friends ask for.”

Nikaj in a televised debate has said that anyone who thinks Kosovo has an option not to dialogue is completely wrong.

“Dialog is the basis of Kosovo's relations with the European Union, the SAA base that has been ratified in the Kosovo Assembly, is the requirement and obligation to implement agreements, is the request and international obligation of Kosovo ratified in Parliament. These have no option”.

Until we discuss whether the dialogue has options or not, we are wasting time. We need to redirect the discussion to what is the solution and how we can get to it. Practices in other countries with neighbourly problems, such as the case of northern Macedonia and the solution to the problem with Greece after 20 years, should be seen. It's not done in a very comprehensive way. We need to be realistic about how much we can have serious discussion, how much transparency and what we mean with transparency. I have the impression that the opinion thinks transparency means that both sides sit on the table with a television camera and we see it as a football match that won't happen neither.”

The former Kosovo ambassador to Brussels has expressed confidence that the border discussion option is no longer on the table of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

“Must take into account [Miroslav] statements Lajcak and [Joseph] Borrell, because these are already official positions. Despite what we have for a certain time commented on something that happened in the past, they have now made it clear that the border discussion option is not on the table. Based on circumstances in Kosovo, Serbia and the EU, the new commission when it was appointed [ Josep] Borrell and the instructions it has [Miroslav] Lajcak for guidance of dialogue by member states, the border discussion option does not exist”.