Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic confirmed in an official press release that he met with Kosovo president Hashim Thaci on Friday in Vienna.

The Mayor of the Presevo municipality, a part of Serbia’s southern region of Presevo Valley, said late on Thursday that his fellow ethnic Albanians were against the exchanges of territories with Kosovo, “even if that means we will stay where we are now,” the Beta news agency reported.

Sqiprim Arifi said that Presevo Valley ethnic Albanians “want a strong Kosovo, and its north (with a Serb majority) even if the price we have to pay is to remain under (the control of) Serbia.”

There is "a great chance" Hashim Thaci, Aleksandar Vucic and Federica Mogerini will be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

This might happen if if the Kosovo issues has been resolved by the spring of 2019, writes the newspaper Danas.
According to the daily, which refers to international diplomatic circles, the first step towards a possible nomination of the Kosovo president is his biography entitled "New State, Modern Statesman," that is being promoted this year in the Western capitals.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying she was "against any changes of borders in the Balkans."

"All there is to be done is for the majority of the European Union to convince its five members that haven't yet recognized Kosovo and Serbia, too, to recognize it within the existing borders. The sooner that is done, the better for the region," Thaci tweeted, Beta agency reported.

Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday that "the whole western world, with exceptions, considers Kosovo as a whole, sovereign, and indivisible territory," Serbian media reports today.

This was the Serbian president's reaction to German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying a day earlier she was "against changing borders in the Balkans."

"She already did delimitation between us -  by separating the whole of Kosovo from Serbia," Vucic said, and the concept of "delimitation" with the Albanians that he has been advocating for recently.

By Perparim Isufi, Maja Zivanovic BIRN Pristina, Belgrade

Analysts say recent heated rhetoric about the possibility of border changes will affect the popularity of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci - but probably not enough to unseat them.

The recent intensive exchange of statements about border ‘corrections’ between Serbia and Kosovo will affect the popularity of both presidents, analysts believe.

The presidents of Serbia and Kosovo are main advocates of the separation between Pristina and Belgrade, Shkëlzen Maliqi, Kosovo ’s political analyst tells the Belgrade Danas daily on Monday, warning about possible effects on Bosnia.

Speaking about the deals between Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci and about a final stage of the Belgrade – Pristina dialogue, Maliqi, also a philosopher and an art critic, said it was interesting to what extent the two had similar stands.

The Mayor of the Presevo Valley Bujanovac town told N1 that a longtime lack of willingness to include the ethnic Albanians into the state structures and in the society as a whole left an impression that Serbia didn’t want them.

The Presidents of Serbia and Kosovo will meet with European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini in Brussels on July 18, European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic tweeted on Thursday.

A statement on the European External Action Service web site said Mogherini would meet with Presidents Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaçi as part of the EU-facilitated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, reports Serbian media.

The Presidents of Serbia and Kosovo could meet in Brussels late this month before the summer break starts, Belgrade-based daily Politika writes in Monday' edition citing unofficial information.

Presidents Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci could meet with European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini on or around July 25, the daily reports.

Mogherini’s spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told Politika that no date has been set for the next high-level meeting.