US Under Secretary of State David Hale says that "there is a chance that a comprehensive solution will be achieved this year, but only if the dialogue is resumed first".
He also pointed out that this solution must contribute to long-term stability in the region.
Serbian opposition leader Dragan Djilas said during his visit to Kosovo that he understands what local Serbs have to go through if they don’t support President Aleksandar Vucic.
“After the organized verbal assault and insults by local bullies, I realized once again what people living in Kosovo go through if they don’t support Aleksandar Vucic,” Djilas told Belgrade daily Danas. The Alliance for Serbia founder visited Kosovo on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Serbian president did not tell the Italian news agency ANSA anything that he doesn’t usually say, Aleksandar Vucic’s media advisor Suzana Vasiljevic told portal Raskrinkavanje on Wednesday.
The European Union has minimised the impact China has on the Balkans, the bloc’s Commissioner for Enlargement Johannes Hahn has said on Tuesday, adding he is worried about the level of loans for infrastructural projects those countries take from Beijing, the Beta news agency reported.
In an interview with Financial Times, Hahn said such loans increased the risk for those countries in the long run.
According to him, the EU would have been a more fair partner.
An American official who will soon take over the position of an Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Philip Reeker, has called on Pristina to abolish the tariffs, reports Serbian media quoting the portal nezavisen.mk.
According to the North Macedonia news portal nezavisen.mk he also called on Belgrade to focus on the strategic interest "instead of being aggressive in rejecting Kosovo."
France must focus on the Western Balkans which have become “a diplomatic dead end”, French European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said, the Belgrade-based Beta news agency reported.
She told the French daily newspaper La Croix that the European Union has not engaged itself sufficiently in reinforcing the peace in the reigon.
“Things can either go in a good direction or in a bad one” but there can be no status quo, she said.
"The provisional Pristina institutions PM saying that the so-called 'Kosovo Army' could enter the north of Kosovo is a threat to the entire region's peace," stated Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin.
He told the public broadcaster, RTS, that the Serbian Army was "confident, strong and capable of preserving peace and stability throughout the country."
Serbia should recognise Kosovo as an independent, sovereign country and Kosovo should do the same, said Matthew Palmer, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.
"The talks between Belgrade and Pristina are not about the border change, but about recognition. Serbia should recognise Kosovo as an independent, sovereign country, and Kosovo should do the same," Palmer said in Delfi, at the fourth Delphi Economic Forum, Danas daily reported.
Serbia will not take any measures that would affect the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, but the agreement is doubtful if Serbia is expected to recognize Kosovo, Serbian Foreign Minister, Ivica Dacic, said.
“We won’t take any measures that would affect the dialogue, but if someone expects us to recognise Kosovo’s independence and not for Pristina to have enough political wisdom and to strive for a compromise than the agreement is quite unlikely,” Dacic said speaking at the fourth Delphi Economic Forum, in Greece.
The Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic claimed on Thursday that he resisted pressure to accept Kosovo’s membership in the United Nations.
President Aleksandar Vucic told a crowd in the southern town of Leskovac that official Belgrade had come under pressure to allow Kosovo into the UN in 2013 but that he refused to agree even when threatened with an end to his political career.