Former American Commander in Belgrade: Many want chaos, but Kosovo, Serbia must reach agreement

Former commander of American Land Forces in Europe, now retired General Ben Hodges, last night in Belgrade has made it clear that the United States of America is not the same as in 199 and that Serbia is not the same.

Present in “pane Stability and prosperity of the Transatlantic Community”, under NATO Week in Belgrade, organised by the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies CEAS, Hoxhas also talked about Kosovo- Serbia

As Serbian media write, Hodges has said that political leaders in Kosovo and Serbia should be given space to negotiate-negotiate as Hoxhas stressed, “without restrictions and red lines to negotiate all difficult issues that must end”.

According to him, the US and the EU have the responsibility to protect both sides in the dialogue process, as the former commander put it, has a lot of external influence on dialogue and still has no proper progress in the dialogue process.

There are countries and individuals who benefit from continuing chaos, that is, unresolved issues. That is why the United States of America must be co-ordinated with the European Union in this process. I am very proud of the US Embassy team in Belgrade, but also of the administration working to achieve something, but there is no way we can do anything ourselves”, Hoxhas stressed.

He stressed that it is the EU that holds the keys to success in this region because, as Hoxha pointed out, it has the keys to economic and Western integration, but Hodges added that, in such a situation, the EU and the US should work together.

According to Hodges, Serbia in 2020 is not the same as that of 1999 after two decades have passed, but the American general stressed that neither the United States of America was what it was in 1999.

We have to deal with issues and see them from today's perspective, not the way we did it two decades ago. We, like leaders in Serbia, have a responsibility not to stay in the wrong history”, Hodges said.

According to him, Serbia must be careful, since as Hoxhas pointed out, it is the official Kremlin who is using the Orthodox Church as its <x0th>arma” to achieve its strategic goals, which, he said, are nothing new to it and to anyone.

We need to look honestly and not be afraid to face it. The Kremlin has zero benefit from solving any problem in the Balkans. Their strategic interest is that the Western Balkans will never be ready for integration into the West”, Hodges said.

When it comes to the defence issue, he says every country has the right to protect its own people and has the right to choose what weapons to use in line with its needs, and added that Serbia's Government made a bold decision by freezing all military exercises for a period of six months.

Hodges added that Serbia should not put itself in the position of being, as he said, Venezuela in Europe and that there are no other friends or partners, but only Moscow.

Regarding the KFOR mission in Kosovo, Hodges said he was very proud of that mission and remembered that while he was commander of the US Land Forces in Europe, when he met with Serb and Albanian leaders, both sides had asked him to withdraw the KFOR mission from Kosovo.

“is the only anchor of stability in the region”, Hodges stressed.

The former American commander on this panel also spoke of “Mini-Sengenen”, which, according to him, is a good opportunity for Western Balkan states that will bring investment, new jobs and help build infrastructure.