Washington meeting is part of the election campaign, its importance will be exaggerated by the Trump administration

The Serb and Kosovo delegations are set to meet in Washington on September 4th to “negotiate” – the US Special Envoy for peace negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo, Richard Grenell announced. This is Grenell’s second attempt at organizing such a meeting. Milan Krstic, editor of the portal “Americki izbori,” told KoSSev that the meeting in question will be “part of the activities within Donald Trump’s election campaign” and its importance will be “exaggerated” by Washington.

Achieving any agreement between Belgrade and Pristina in the White House would be deemed by Grenell and the Trump administration as a giant success and confirmation that the US plays an important mediating role around the world, Milan Krstic, an assistant at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade and editor of the “Americki izbori” portal said in a statement for KoSSev.

„This kind of message has already been sent by the recent agreement between the UAE and Israel. Although foreign policy is certainly not one of the key factors that will decide the fate of the elections, Trump must use every opportunity now to cut the current advantage that polls give to his challenger Joseph Biden,“ he said.

According to Krstic, however, there is no room for the „final recognition agreement“ – as Kosovo officials have been announcing.

„A formal agreement between the states is not possible, since Serbia does not recognize Kosovo and that will not change after the Washington talks. I expect a framework agreement to be reached in a less formal and non-binding form, which would mainly regulate economic issues and which each side could present as its own victory. While its importance would be exaggerated by Washington,“ Krstic said.

Richard Grenell himself had also announced on several occasions that economic topics will be discussed in Washington with the aim of creating new jobs. Belgrade-based Politika daily reported today that infrastructure projects will also be discussed at the meeting in the US capital.

Despite Grenell’s continuous denials, several analysts have assessed that there is a rift between the US and the EU on the issue of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. The Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also warned on several occasions that there is a conflict between „world powers.“ Back in July, Trump’s election opponent, Joseph Biden criticized „the lack of coordination of the Trump administration with the EU envoy for the dialogue.“

„The United States should work together with our European partners, and not turn our back on them,“ Biden said at the time, emphasizing that he would cooperate with the EU in resolving the Kosovo issue.

Krstic, however, pointed out that talking about the rivalry between the EU and the USA was only possible while the delimitation idea was floated around.

„This initiative cannot lead to a final solution to the Kosovo issue, and that is why it is not a direct blow to the process that is being conducted under the auspices of the EU, and whose goal is to reach a legally binding agreement between the two sides. While there was a possibility of reaching an agreement in Washington on the delimitation against the will of the EU, the topic of rivalry and opposition between Brussels and Washington could be discussed. Now it seems that there is room for complementarity,“ he told KoSSev.

In addition to the conflict between the EU and the United States, Serbian officials, primarily Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, have repeatedly claimed that there are disagreements on the issue of Kosovo within US institutions, specifically between White House officials and the State Department. On the other hand, Krstic explained that although there are some differences in the flexibility of the representatives of these institutions – that does not mean that Washington can change its position on Kosovo’s independence.

„The current White House administration is definitely showing more flexibility in relation to the previous US policy, which was mostly based on the request for Belgrade to accept reality as soon as possible. On the other hand, career diplomats in the State Department mostly specialized in the period when such policy was pursued, and they are not changing the approach within which the problem is usually seen in Belgrade. However, one should not toy with the idea that this difference means a substantial change in US policy towards the issue of Kosovo’s independence. Washington recognizes Kosovo as an independent state. The only difference is the degree of flexibility regarding the final political setup of Kosovo, possible changes in borders and concessions for Serbs in Kosovo and Serbia,“ Krstic concluded.