TIRANA: Albania and Croatia have asked NATO to revise plans for its peace-keeping mission in Kosovo, arguing that nationalist rhetoric by Serb politicians threatens to destabilise the region scarred by the 1990s wars.

Relations between Serbia and its former province Kosovo came under renewed strain since Belgrade sent a train painted with the slogan "Kosovo is Serbia" to the border and Kosovo police said it would stop it from entering its territory.

The Director of the Office for Kosovo at the government of Serbia, Marko Djuric, met today with the Chinese Ambassador to Serbia, Li Manchang.

During the meeting they discussed the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade, and they especially stressed “the danger from the creation of the army of Kosovo.”

They both stressed the importance of friendly cooperation and development of political relations between Serbia and China.

Deputy Minister of the Local Government, Bajram Gecaj, took to Facebook to reply to the director of the Office for Kosovo at the Serbian government, Marko Djuric, who considered that the effort of Kosovo to create an army was dangerous.

Serbian media continue to deal with all sorts of speculation  about Kosovo. The language of these media has significantly degraded in relation to Kosovo and Albanians. Consequence of this nationalist discourse is stopping of the train which was arriving from Belgrade to Kosovo and demolition of the wall in Mitrovica north.

“Shiptari” is the pejorative that some media in Serbia are using while referring to Albanians, the same word was used during Milisevic’s era.

Head of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) parliamentary group of, Ismet Beqiri stated at today’s Assembly session that Kosovo  institutions demonstrated maturity and institutional acting during Serbia’s two recent provocations, the wall and the train.

High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union Federica Mogherini said she is encouraged by the constructive engagement of Belgrade and Prishtinë/Priština in a new round of dialogue and added that this process is important for the region and EU.

Federica Mogherini, in a statement after the meeting, stated that the commitment and political will, make a significant contribution to reducing tensions and that the future work will be continued in the same spirit.

Ethnic tensions are rising in Kosovo, setting the stage for an early test of U.S.-Russian relations under President Donald Trump in a Balkan country where U.S. troops keep the peace decades after a NATO air campaign ended Serb rule over the Albanian population.

A 78-day U.S.-led bombing campaign in 1999 forced Serbia to give up control of Kosovo, which Serbs consider their historic homeland, after months of reprisal killings and forced dislocations by armed Serbs and ethnic Albanian rebels.

The President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, said today that the issue of the wall would not be discussed with Belgrade authorities, because it is an internal issue of Kosovo.

Thaçi made these statements in front of the monument of Zahir Pajaziti, and added that “As a state, we are very much aware that today is the last day of the deadline deriving from the Resolution of the Assembly of Kosovo, which has to be respected with preciseness.”

The second round of the high level discussions between Kosovo and Serbia will be held on Wednesday.

During the press conference on additional measures for managing migration along the Central Mediterranean route, ahead of the Malta Summit, the EU High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini, answered also on the questions how she sees the follow-up of Tuesday’s talks between Pristina and Belgrade, if there are some concrete plans for follow-up and why did she issue an additional statement the next morning regretting that not everybody respected the spirit of the agreement to refrain from comments and leave the tensions behind.