Vucic meets Lajcak and Escobar, no statements planned

TANJUG/SAVA RADOVANOVIĆ

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met Wednesday in Belgrade with European Union (EU) Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Miroslav Lajcak. Half an hour later, they were joined by US Deputy Assistant Secretary Gabriel Escobar.

No official statement was made after the talks.

Vucic on Wednesday asked the international community on Instragram “which of the six important documents” they want Serbia to honor, first listing five – the Kumanovo Agreement, the UN Charter, Resolution 1244, the Brussels Agreement and the Washington Agreement, and then also adding the Thessaloniki document on the expansion of the EU to the Western Balkans.

Escobar is also to meet Wednesday in Belgrade with Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic.

The EU and US officials came to Belgrade from Pristina amid heightened tensions in north Kosovo, where Serbs have set up roadblocks over the arrest of former Kosovo police officer Dejan Pantic.

The main roads in north Kosovo are blocked, and the administrative border crossings Jarinje and Brnjak are closed. Tensions in north Kosovo have increased since Kosovo Serb representatives withdrew from Kosovo’s institutions on November 5.

Escobar said yesterday in Pristina that the US categorically rejects the idea of Serbian forces returning to Kosovo.

Commenting Vucic’s announcement that Belgrade will ask KFOR on Thursday to allow the deployment of Serbian military and police in Kosovo, Escobar said he does not expect that to happen and added that Kosovo has “firm security guarantees from the US.”