The United States Assistant Deputy Secretary of State, Matthew Palmer, said during his visit to Sarajevo on Sunday that efforts to resolve the Kosovo issue status cannot be linked to the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the news website reports. “The normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia would improve the security situation in the Western Balkans region and it would also pave the way for Kosovo and Serbia to membership of the European Union and this would be very good for Bosnia and Herzegovina too,” Palmer said.
Palmer also said that the U.S. and Russia have different objectives in the Western Balkans and Bosnia and Herzegovina. “The core of the U.S. policy in the Western Balkans is to support Euro-Atlantic integration. This means membership in the EU and NATO for all Balkans countries that want to join. The Russians have different objectives in the Balkans. They want to see the region divided and with a high level of tensions. In 2016, the Russians sponsored coup d’etat efforts in Montenegro. They worked against the Prespa Agreement and they blocked North Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic path. There is no evidence that would make us believe that Russia would want something different in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Palmer added.