Serwer: Attention, Trump keen on partitioning Kosovo, will offer in exchange for territories with Serbia

Daniel Serwer, professor at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, says American President Donald Trump did not stop the outbreak of war between Kosovo and Serbia, as he wrote Sunday at “Truth Social”, and according to him, “any efforts he now makes can cause even more damage to”, because of his “tendency to partition Kosovo<5>.

While he said that “Balkan has been troubled because President Trump mentioned the region”, Serwer says the Trump Administration will offer the division of Kosovo “as an exchange of” territory.

His adviser to the Balkans, Rich Green, thinks this is a great idea. He will offer it as an exchange of territory. Kosovo's majority Serb north would pass Serbia, and the majority Albanian municipalities in southern Serbia would pass Kosovo. Sounds good, especially if you're an ethnic nationalist. Trump and Grenelli are ethnic nationalists devoted to the kind of white primacy”, he writes.

But, Serwer says “Serbia will not accept its” partition.

“It prefers to keep all south of Serbia, where it crosses a key route to Thessaloniki and the Mediterranean. So Belgrade is doing its best to get Albanians out of there. This is a classic fraudulent scheme: offer trade, target division. Prime Minister Kurti, or his successor, would do well not to allow the discussion of exchange to enter the agenda at all”, says Cerer.

He says that “and a fully qualified American president would have much to think about now before dealing with the Balkans”.

A confused president like Trump can't do anything but take credit for things he's done and promise more. But he's failing everywhere: Gaza, Iran, Ukraine and trade are all in chaos. His lack of consistency is not healthy. Watch what you want. My advice to those who think they need American help is this: don't ask. Choose your own”.

According to him, Serbia's “and Kosovo do not need help from people like Ric Green or Donald Trump”.

“Dialog in recent years has been aiming to normalise relations between them without mutual recognition. This has failed. The entire political dialogue since 2013 has produced little or no”.

The technical dialogue that preceded this effort, and which has continued in silence, has produced much more. Although underestimated at the time, a telephone code for Kosovo, mutual recognition of documents, regulation of electricity supplies and payments, integrated control of borders these are things that have real impact on people. At this point, Belgrade and Pristina are familiar with each other to continue with technical issues even without EU mediation. If there is political will, they should do it”, he writes.

Serwer says Belgrade “should find a way with Brussels to resume” towards membership.

“This should include implementing the agreement as a priority and the application annex that was supposed to be reached in 2023. President Vuciq refused to sign, but the EU is including commitments in the membership process. He would do well to apply” silently.

Kosovo is still suffering under EU unwarranted sanctions for actions that no one remembers”, writes Cerwer.

“But they helped stabilise the situation in the north and demonstrated the professionalism of Pristina security forces in the face of Belgrade's co-ordinated efforts to destabilise. Brussels has begun the process of lifting sanctions. It has to be finished as soon as it can, he adds./Periscopi/