Escobar says Washington deal continues to be valid

In the first statements since being appointed to this position, Escobar said the American administration's approach to the region has not changed, and this is the European integration of these countries.

The new administration will focus heavily on the message that the region should be part of the EU, make the reforms necessary for this. We see extraordinary economic opportunities in the region”, Escobar said in an online debate organised by the European Policy Centre.

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“Target is not just mutual recognition ( Kosovo- Serbia) but also EU integration. The region should be in full peace and part of the EU”, he added.

The American diplomat said the State Department through embassies in Kosovo and Serbia will work both countries to implement the agreements that have been reached in Brussels and make sure leaders direct energy in dialogue and not to avoid it.

Even the European Union's special representative in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, spoke of empowering co-operation between the EU and the US in relation to the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

Senior EU and US officials are imposing transatlantic co-operation for Kosovo-Serbia dialogue on the fact that between 2018-2020, as long as the EU-mediated dialogue was suspended, then the US administration had launched a parallel process of dialogue between the two countries, which culminated in reaching the agreement to normalise economic reports between Kosovo and Serbia on September 4th 2020.

The documents were signed by then Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, in the presence of then US President Donald Trump.

The EU was left out of this process.

Escobar said Washington's agreement continues to be valid and that through it, the US administration is trying to create economic trust measures.

Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia has started since 2011.

The two countries with the European Union's mediation hold meetings at two levels -- that of negotiating groups which are led by Besnik Bislimi and Petar Petkovic -- and meetings at the level of leaders of the countries, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, respectively.

The talks deal with the possibility of reaching a comprehensive agreement that would solve open problems between the two countries.

The last meeting between Kurti and Vuciqi was held in July, but no progress had been achieved.

Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti had said after the meeting that he had proposed a declaration of peace between Kosovo and Serbia, but, according to him, it was rejected “not read”.

For me this indicates the unwillingness of the agreement, since it was refused without reading at all”, Kurti said.

Vuciq, on the other hand, declared that the Kosovo side always conditions with the new “political criteria”.

For the month of September, it was warned that the next meeting between Kurti and Vuciqi would also be held, but after the meeting at the level of the chief negotiators on September 8th, the head of the Kosovo delegation in dialogue with Serbia, Besnik Bislimi confirmed that during this month there will be no meeting between Kurti-Wuchic.

Deputy Prime Minister Bislimi said during trilateral meeting (Kosovo - Serbia - The EU, the only topic, has been the issue of the found. He said that on this issue, the parties have expressed readiness to have access to state archives.

Official Belgrade also insists that Pristina implement the Agreement on Association of Serb-run municipalities. Meanwhile, official Pristina has stressed that a number of agreements reached within the dialogue are not being implemented properly by Belgrade. Kosovo, in this direction, has separately cited the border control agreement -- the one for recognition of diplomas -- for certificates of goods, freedom of movement, as well as the accord for the introduction.

Serbia's delegation chief Petar Petkovic said after recent talks that Kosovo's representative has “on the subject of the majority Serb municipalities' association, justice, energy and free movement, and that the European side has observed this too”.

EU representative Lajcak warned a visit to Pristina during the coming week.

The executive director of the CaviCos platform, Donika Emine, said during the European Policy Centre's online debate that the agreement between the two countries should be one that would find application, otherwise it could not be said that dialogue is a <x0 success”.