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Munter: “Mutual recognition of states” would help internal dialogue on Kosovo (Tanjug, Blic)

Former USA Ambassador to Serbia, Cameron Munter and the President of the East-West Institute, stated to Tanjug news agency that the initiation of an internal dialogue on Kosovo is an excellent initiative and expressed hope it would be successful.

“This is a very welcome decision. I think Serbia and Kosovo are ready to talk about the future within the EU, not only leadership but ordinary people as well.”

Munter stated that the East-West Institute, wants to help in this process, and they are opening a regional office in Belgrade.

“We do not have a solution, but we can help people to gather and talk,” Munter went on saying.

According to the former USA Ambassador, the positive outcome of such internal dialogue would be “mutual recognition of states,” and “mutual recognition of economic, cultural and other goals,” meaning that students from Kosovo could study in Serbia, businessmen from Kosovo sell their goods in Serbia and vice-versa.

Asked if his recommendations to the USA administration, one of the things the Institute would be doing, would be a recommendation to exert pressure upon Pristina to implement the Brussels agreement, in particular establish the Community of the Serb Municipalities, Munter replied “he does not believe that pressure yields results.”

“Sometimes it is better to offer people incentives. I like to think more about that, how to give incentives to the people in Kosovo, how to motivate Albanians and Serbs to work together. I think people react to positive incentives,” Munter stated.