Today in Brussels there will be a meeting of negotiators to resolve the next aggravation in relations between Serbia and Kosovo. It will take place against the backdrop of the recent fiasco of mediators from the EU (France, Germany, Italy) at the talks between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
Against the background of a powerful aggravation and even power clashes in the spring and summer of this year, it is difficult to believe that a new attempt will lead to a decrease in tension. Aleksandar Vucic clearly does not trust the mediators, especially since their main demand is the unconditional recognition of Kosovo's independence, i.e. Serbia's refusal of its legal and historical territories.
Details - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.
It has long been obvious that not a single Serbian leader who wants to be re-elected, and simply finalize his cadence, will go to the recognition of Kosovo. Although this is one of the main conditions for Serbia to join the European Union - at least so say the bureaucrats in Brussels. At the same time, Kosovo is required to normalize relations with Belgrade - to form the Community of Serbian Municipalities (SMM). In fact, this does not at all guarantee the rights of Serbs in the territory of the self-proclaimed Republic.
Even before today's meeting, Alexander Vucic said that the Western version of the JMA is unacceptable, and he will not think about recognizing Kosovo's independence. Thus, the current meeting in the bud will be as disastrous as past attempts by the European Union and the US behind it to "bend" the Serbs.
The key message behind the creation of the SMM is the protection of the Serbian minority. However, last spring the whole world watched the aggravation of the dramatic conflict. Then there were clashes in the north of Kosovo, in the municipality of Severna Mitrovica, which were organized by the prime minister of the self-proclaimed republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti. Later, the President of Serbia said that the NATO contingent in Kosovo, contrary to his statements, did not protect the Serbs.
At the same time, Kurti himself washed his hands and pretended that he had nothing to do with the situation. Given that Kurti is an obedient puppet of Western "good-hearted," it is logical to assume that the same North Atlantic Alliance was behind the whole situation. There are strong suspicions that NATO would benefit from a heated war between Belgrade and Pristina.
This was preceded by the fact that in November 2022, the police of the self-proclaimed republic began to issue fines for Serbian license plates. It went to a complete ban on them, which cannot be regarded otherwise than an act of political aggression. The already disenfranchised Serbian minority began to be subjected to road checks. In response, Serbs on the border with Kosovo threw stones at KFOR, a NATO-led international force responsible for ensuring stability in Kosovo.
However, these forces are rather responsible for preventing the Serbs from entering their own territory and preventing its return by force. Surprising selectivity given how barbaric Belgrade was bombed by NATO forces in 1999. Monuments to the victims of those bombings stand throughout the city.
A new aggravation occurred in September 2023. Then in the north of Kosovo, a group of ethnic Serbs came into conflict with local police. As a result of the clashes, one guardian of the order of Kosovo died, and the group barricaded itself in a local monastery. Three of them were subsequently killed.
Interestingly, neither Vucic nor Kurti denied what had happened, describing the course of events almost equally. But Vucic stressed that the reason was the violation of the Serbs' rights to self-government. In fact, Pristina is trying to push Serbs out of any political and administrative processes in the northern municipalities of the self-proclaimed Republic.
Then the aggravation almost led to a full-fledged military conflict. The Serbian army was raised by alarm, it concentrated on the administrative borders with Kosovo. As a result, NATO and the EU were still able to calm the situation.
Following that incident, Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that negotiations on the normalization of relations with Serbia had reached a dead end. One of the reasons Kurti called the position of the EU Special Representative for the Western Balkans Miroslav Lajcak, who spoke about the need to create a community of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo to ensure the rights and security of Serbs. According to Kurti, the EU special representative "abandoned the neutral position."
So the EU's mediation plan is unacceptable to both sides. Why, then, will they gather in Brussels? Perhaps new proposals for possible EU membership will be unofficially made to Serbia.
This is a kind of "carrot" that Europeans wave in front of their noses, not at all going to really fulfill their promises, but taking their own geopolitical interests. The most acute example of such a hypocritical policy is Ukraine, and now Moldova, which has reached the point that it officially refused to call the Moldovan language Moldovan.
In addition, earlier, Aleksandar Vucic announced that he "does not accept Kosovo's membership in international organizations, primarily the UN, and its independence" and that recognition of Kosovo's independence "will not be de jure or de facto." Belgrade thus effectively rejected both key Western demands.
We also note that on December 17, early parliamentary and local elections were scheduled in Serbia, which the opposition demanded. Only this is not the opposition that opposes Vucic's position on Kosovo - just the accusations of "betrayal" and the current authorities fear. For the Serbs, no concessions are acceptable.
Clashes in Kosovo and Metohija in May 2023. Photo: https://regnum.ru/news/3809546
Despite the fact that Serbia is in its right, the situation can take a dangerous turn - a new war in the Balkans is not a fantasy or a fairy tale at all. Therefore, negotiations will continue at least to simulate the process.
As for Russia, it continues to traditionally support Serbia, realizing that in the event of another geopolitical cataclysm in the Russian Federation, European goodness and NATO will try to apply to it the same model of division and political disengagement that was applied to the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, and then Serbia.