Grenell: We did not do typical political thing

According to him, the agreement, signed by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Avdulah Hoti at the White House, was reached because “an outside administration" did not do the “typical political thing".  “If we would have done the typical political thing and listened to all of the really smart people at NGOs and think tanks here in Washington, we would not have this agreement," he said.  

“The only way that this agreement could have happened is from an outsider.  All of the insiders in Washington said, “You’re not talking about recognition, you're not talking about this symbolic word.”  And what we tried to do is ignore that, and, from an outsider perspective, go in and dig deep," the ambassador said.  

Grenell said that President Trump wanted to do something different - try to do economics first and let the politics fall. "That proved to actually be a formula that they were eager for.  No one had been talking to them about this,” he said. 

He said that economic normalization is a first step which the Europeans will be very happy with, adding that the national security advisors in Paris and Berlin had been briefed about the agreement. “This is a region that's been largely shut out because of a perceived conflict.  European businesses and American businesses largely have refused to go in and grow in these areas. Now we will be able to open this up,” he said.  

Grenell refused to comment when asked to comment reports that President Vucic said a bilateral agreement had been signed with the US, not Kosovo. “I would never try to clarify what President Vucic means when he's talking to the Serbian press," he said.

Speaking about the agreement, Grenell said that the final points were different for Serbia and for Kosovo. “There’s one point that’s different at the very bottom, which is that Serbia is going to move its embassy by July of next year.  That's on the Serbian agreement.  And for the Kosovo, their last point -- everything is identical until the last point.  The last point for Kosovo is that they have a mutual recognition with Israel," he said.