Belgrade-Pristina dialogue should continue since an eventual solution will have a positive effect on the whole region, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said during a joint press conference with the presidents of Kosovo, Slovenia, Austria, and EU official in Austria on Sunday, BETA news agency reported.
Vucic added he said during the meeting with his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci, mediated by the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz and the EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn that “It (finding solution) will not go easily.”
“We both know the differences between us in trying to find any compromise are too big,” Vucic added told journalists.
“I hope that we will be able to keep on talking. I cannot reveal the details before all is agreed,” Vucic said during another news conference with Thaci, Austrian counterpart Alexander Van Der Bellen, Slovenian President Borut Pahor and Commissioner Hahn.
He has said that a solution in which Serbia recognizes Kosovo’s independence and gets nothing in return “won’t happen in a hundred years.”
“If you think that the frozen conflict can last forever, it cannot. One day it will defrost, and then we will have a war, what no one wants,” Vucic warned.
He added that “we have to solve the problems with the Albanians for the benefit of both nations and the whole region. Though I’m still a pessimist,” he said, adding that in case of reaching an agreement “we will solve the problem that exists for more than two centuries.”
However, Vucic said, he was not confident that Serbia’s people would support an eventual agreement.
He called on the European Union to give him more significant support in the process of normalizing relation with Pristina, adding “a solution cannot be reached without the EU.”
Thaci, who favors correction of borders, said no one should be afraid of a potential agreement with Belgrade, even if it will mean some border changes.
“Kosovo and Serbia wouldn’t be either the first or the last which corrected the borders to solve the conflicts,” Thaci said.
Both Thaci and Vucic called on the international community to support an eventual agreement reached by Belgrade and Pristina.
Commissioner Hahn said the EU supports the integration of the Western Balkans but reiterated that the EU could not take in new members without their bilateral issues resolved.
Slovenian President Borut Pahor said “if a deal were reached, the region would have a bright future.”
“I know how difficult that is, but I recognize both Vucic’s and Thaci’s commitment to reach a sustainable solution,” Slovenian President added.
