Serbian official says dialogue depends on developments in Kosovo

Petar Petković, Kancelarija za KiM
FOTO TANJUG/ SAVA RADOVANOVIĆ

A senior Serbian Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday that the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue now depends on developments in northern Kosovo.

Ministry State Secretary Nemanja Starovic told the state TV (RTS) that the political dialogue will not continue before the situation goes back to what it was before the latest crisis and the Kosovo police special unit ROSU withdraws.

Starovic confirmed that Belgrade’s chief negotiator, Office for Kosovo chief Petar Petkovic had been invited to Brussels to continue the technical dialogue but added that developments this week would determine if that would happen. European Union spokesman Peter Stano confirmed that Petkovic and Pristina’s chief negotiator Besnik Bislimi had been invited to Brussels.

Tensions have been high in the north of Kosovo over the past week after the authorities in Pristina decided to deny entry to vehicles with Serbian license plates following the expiration of a part of the Brussels Agreement that allowed official Belgrade to ban vehicles with Republic of Kosovo (RKS) license plate from entering Serbia proper. Local Serbs blocked roads leading to border crossings and the Serbian authorities put some military units on high alert while Pristina deployed its police special unit ROSU in the north of Kosovo.

Starovic said that the political dialogue has no prospects and that the EU has to state clearly if the Brussels Agreement is still valid or not.