Aleksandar Vučić will accept independence only if Serbia gets something concrete in return.
When Nato bombed Serbia in 1999, Aleksandar Vučić was information minister, enforcing censorship rules for the country’s president, Slobodan Milošević, who would later be for war crimes.
Nearly two decades later, Vučić himself is Serbia’s president. Claiming to have shed many of his former nationalist views, and brushing off accusations of authoritarianism, he is now seen by the international community as the man who could sign an agreement that would eventually bring reconciliation over Kosovo.
The former province of Serbia pulled away from Belgrade under international supervision after the Nato air campaign, and proclaimed independence in 2008. Serbia still considers the territory its own.
In an interview with the Guardian in Belgrade this week, Vučić said he believed there is now a brief window of “six months or a year” in which it might be possible to sign a deal.
“We are ready to discuss every single issue, we are ready to take into consideration every single proposal that would mean a compromise solution,” he said, provided Serbia is offered something in return.
