3 minutes agoFormer British diplomat: Instead of EU membership, Serbia, Albania could reconsider borders
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)Timothy Leses, former British diplomats in Bosnia and Herzegovina and professor at the Centre for Geopolitical and Strategic at Cambridge University, said that Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia would eventually join the “Open Bankan” initiative, but that lack of EU membership would, according to him, give Albania and Serbia a strong hand [...]
Les said there can be no progress in future meetings between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, since he says the EU refuses to talk about real issues.
There will be no progress, at least in the short term, because Europeans refuse to talk about real issues, borders and territory. Serbia has no real incentive to give up Kosovo without the prospect of taking Republika Srpska and will not do so. Kosovo has no incentive to make concessions. However, I do not see this situation last indefinitely because the international environment is changing that they will eventually offer a solution. Both the EU and the US are in a situation of crisis that is likely to deteriorate in the near future, giving actors in the Balkans more room for maneuvering”, Les says in an interview for “Kosovo Online”.
In the absence of Albania and Serbia's EU membership, the former British diplomat sees the solution to problems in the Balkans.
Bosnia's “Serbs will respond increasingly to threats by insisting on independence, while Kosovo Albanians will respond to weakening security guarantees by approaching Albania. And in the absence of EU membership, Serbia and Albania will have cheaper hands to manage the border review process. So the Kosovo issue will be resolved”, he says.
He said that from 4 September, he expects Kosovo and Serbia to launch the recognition-recognition campaign.
I'm expecting this. In the absence of an agreed agreement, Kosovo and Serbia will try to change political reality by recognising or denying recognition”, he said.
According to him, the US will resist returning negotiations to the United Nations Organisation, Les says the US's interest is for Miroslav Lajchat to remain a mediator in the process.
The United States will resist this because of its disgust to give Russia and China any formal impact in the process. Thus will Europeans who want to maintain control of the mediation process. Their interest will be to keep Lajcak there and continue the dialogue, however elusive the solution may be. Such things have a precedent. Nimetz worked on Macedonia's name for twenty years”, Timothy Les said.
