European leaders pushed Serbia and Kosovo on Monday to step back from a potential new conflict and return to peace talks, while Kosovo’s divided political leadership came together briefly to seek help from the United States.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron held lengthy but inconclusive talks in Berlin with leaders of Serbia and Kosovo, seeking to reduce nationalist tensions on both sides that derailed peace talks led by the European Union. All sides plan to meet again July 1 in Paris, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci said in an interview.
Both European leaders tamped down expectations for quick progress, and Thaci said European Union members cannot agree among themselves about how to deal with the Balkan tensions.
“Without the United States we can do no final agreement, because the E.U. is divided, it’s true,” Thaci said by phone from Berlin, after meetings and a dinner among the European and Balkan leaders that he called “difficult” but cordial.
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