Serbia could face international isolation and economic decline if it rejects a new Western plan for normalising relations with its former wartime foe Kosovo, the Balkan country’s president Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday, in what appeared to be a shift from his previous hardline rhetoric.
Serbia received that warning last week during a visit by a group of U.S. And European envoys who have stepped up efforts to defuse longtime tensions in the volatile Balkan region amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Serbia must talk, take part in dialogue and continue its European road,” Vucic said.
“We would be economically and politically lost without it and, as a president, I would not agree to lead the country that is alone and isolated.”
The dispute between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo has remained a source of instability in the Balkans long after the 1998-99 war, which ended with a NATO intervention that forced Serbia to pull out of the territory.
Kosovo in 2008 declared independence from Serbia, which Belgrade has refused to recognise, relying on Russia and China to help Serbia maintain its claim over the territory.
The U.S. And most EU nations have recognised Kosovo, while Russia and China have not.
The new Western plan for normalising Serbia-Kosovo relations has not been officially made public.
Vucic said in his televised address that the plan stipulates that Serbia would not be against membership of Kosovo in international organizations, including the United Nations.
The U.S. And EU want to push forward an EU-mediated dialogue that has been stalled for months because they fear Russia, a Serbia ally, could try to stir instability in the Balkans to avert attention from the war in Ukraine.
“These talks were among the toughest in the past decade,” Vucic added, describing the meeting. “It was never like this.”
The West wants to defeat Russia and anyone standing in the way will be “swept away,” Vucic said.