Radio Free Europe estimates that Germany and the US have found themselves on the opposite sides when it comes to resolving the Kosovo issue.
The process of seeking a solution to the issue of normalizing relations between Serbia and Kosovo has long been internationalized, but the last year, the US has made a turn, after which seems the view of the Washington administration is considerably different.
Germany, on the other hand, remains at the same position since 2008, and see the normalization of relations between Pristina and Belgrade as part of the process of European integration of that part of the region, according to Radio Free Europe.
“Everything outside the European process is viewed as turning away from this process, while obviously for US officials this is different: they see this matter first of all as an isolated problem between Kosovo and Serbia, and try to put a point to it, and to withdraw from the Balkans, and on which they spent a lot of time, and which is no longer relevant to their foreign policy as it was in the past,” comments for the Radio Free Europe Julia Himrih, the PhD student at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
She underlines that while the US seeks a solution to the conflict between the two sides, Germany sees it first in the context of the European integration of Serbia and Kosovo: “These two approaches are colliding – German and American. You certainly have noticed, that at the Belgrade Security Conference last year, German officials made it clear that ideas about changing the borders were considered as a distraction from what really matters, and that is dialogue on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina “.
Unlike the United States, whose senior representatives for the first time since 2008, when Kosovo’s independence was declared, sent messages in recent months that Pristina and Belgrade should come up with a flexible and creative solution that does not exclude border correction, what they would support, Germany is against any movement of borders.
“However, if in the long run it turns out that Serbia and Kosovo are ready to show more progress in the dialogue, I think Germany could be more prepared for a greater degree of flexibility, but the current position of Berlin is that some politicians represent a border correction as parallel or alternative solution in relation to the dialogue on the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo “, assesses Himrih.
