Senior Foreign Ministry official and Balkans expert Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko has been appointed the new Russian ambassador to Serbia, Russian media reported quoting a decree by President Vladimir Putin.

Russian news agencies said that “President Putin relieved Alexander Chepurin of his duties as Ambassador to Serbia and appointed Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko to the post”. The decree was published on a government web site.

The UK, the US and Germany called on the UN Security Council during the Monday's meeting on Kosovo, to strategically revise the UNMIK mission, praising it for the job done so far, while Russia demanded an apology from Pristina for the treatment of its UN member, the FoNet news agency reported on Monday.

The US representative said Washington was concerned about the tensions between Pristina and Belgrade, adding both sides should go back to the dialogue on normalisation of relations.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer said on Monday that Washington wants Pristina to revoke the 100 percent tariffs imposed on goods from Serbia so that both sides can return to negotiations and reach an agreement for the sake of the entire region, reported Beta news agency.

Speaking after a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Palmer said that an agreement between Belgrade and Pristina would make the European future of Serbia and Kosovo and the Western Balkans region easier to achieve.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Belgrade based daily Politika that peace and stability in Kosovo has been a priority for this alliance for past 20 years and that the UN mandate for the NATO peacekeeping mission remains unchanged.

Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic will represent Serbia at the UN Security Council session on Monday, when the report of the General Secretary on the work of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) from January 16 to May 15 will be discussed, the Ministry said on Sunday.

Serbia’s President asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the phone to help with breaking the deadlock in the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade, Aleksandar Vucic’s office said on Saturday.

Serbia is completely committed to the dialogue which is facilitated by the European Union with the intention to reach a compromise, a solution that is acceptable to both sides and secures stability in the region, he told Merkel.

The Presidents of Serbia and Kosovo clashed over the stalled Belgrade-Pristina dialogue at a GLOBSEC conference in Bratislava on Friday.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told a panel debate that Belgrade is prepared to continue the dialogue as soon as Pristina revokes the 100 percent tariffs it imposed on goods from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. His Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci replied saying that the dialogue cannot continue if conditions are being set which, according to him, is what Serbia is doing.

Ivica Dacic, Serbia’s Foreign Minister, told Russian Sputnik news agency he did not destroy the 100 dollars banknote by writing “Kosovo is Serbia” on it, nor did he insult Benjamin Franklin, an American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the US, but followed Franklin’s essential idea, who also had a wise message that "he who has patience can have what he wants", the Belgrade based FoNet news agency reported.

The US embassy condemned Dacic’s “Internet challenge” with the message written in Cyrillic over the dollar banknote.

The outgoing UK ambassador to Serbia Denis Keefe said on Thursday that his country and Serbia have a complex relationship, but that the two countries share common values, the Beta news agency reported.

Keefe said, visiting the Vojvodina RTV Show Pravi Ugao (Right Angle), that British suggestion of the resolution on Srebrenica in the UN Security Council three years ago was not against Serbia, adding that the reconciliation in the region requested "honesty and open discussion, not the relativisation."

Emmanuel Macron, French President, will come to Belgrade in mid-July to confirm good political relations and strengthen the economic links between the two countries, French ambassador to Serbia Frederic Mondoloni said on Thursday, the FoNet news agency reported.

Macron was due in Serbia last November but had to postpone the visit due to the wave of protests in France.

“Our relations are very dynamic and develop in all areas, especially in economy,” the ambassador said.