Philips: Trump administration has put Kosovo aside

Former senior adviser to the American State Department, David Phillips, says the US President Donald Trump's administration has sidelined Kosovo, dealing more with technical issues than political container.

“The U.S. had to be the most powerful and loud opponent. The idea of territorial changes was never meant to be taken. We have recently seen that the United States has been refocused on regional economic issues. Albanians have rejected the plan for fragmentation, Ambassador Richard Greenell continued further with the economic programme for both countries, Kosovo and Serbia. This, however, is not the essence. The main issue is neither economic nor technical. The crucial question is that Serbia continues to refuse to recognise Kosovo and to admit it has lost it because of the crimes Milosevic committed. There is no programme to achieve mutual recognition between Kosovo and Serbia. And until Serbia faces facts and recognises Kosovo, it will continue to be the vague situation”.

Phillips says that generally the international community has failed to pressure Serbia on recognising Kosovo. And according to him without solving the fate of the missing, which continues to remain an open wound for Kosovo, there can be no reconciliation between Kosovo and Serbia. In an interview for our US-US correspondent Halil Mula, Phillips says the Special Court should change the mandate and address all crimes committed in Kosovo during wartime.