Kosovo’s Thaci: Deal with Serbia – mutual recognition and UN membership

N1

Hashim Thaci, Kosovo’s President, reiterated during an official visit to the US that “the final agreement with Serbia will include mutual recognition and the United Nations membership” of Serbia’s former province, media reported.

Thaci met with the State Department’s envoy for the Western Balkans Matthew Palmer and other US officials including William Walker, former Washington representative in Kosovo during the 1998-1999 war there.

“At the working dinner with Palmer, the head of the Atlantic Council Damon Wilson, representatives of the Senate, Congress and other Washington’s institutions, that talks included the possibilities of reaching a final agreement with Serbia that will mean mutual recognition and Kosovo’s UN membership,” Thaci wrote on his Facebook page in Albanian.

On Sunday, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic told his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) officials he knew what would be offered to Serbia regarding Kosovo and that it would be something “difficult to reject but impossible to accept.”

Belgrade opposes Kosovo as an independent state and pledges never to recognise it.

Thaci on Wednesday also met with Kosovo’s ambassador to the US Vlora Çitaku who broke fake news that Jamaica had recognised Kosovo’s independence a few days ago. She said the decision on recognition was blocked because Pristina’s officials published the news before the verbal note, although she said she instructed them not to. Jamaican Foreign Ministry denied the news on the same day it was published.