USAID chief optimistic on Serbia-Kosovo talks, pledges support

In EU-brokered talks between Kosovo and Serbia, the US’ top international development official said Friday that Washington is emphasizing the need to normalize relations.

After three days in Serbia, USAID Administrator Samantha Power has been in Kosovo for two.

“The importance of implementation of the agreements that will produce a normalization that will be incredibly important for Kosovo and for Serbia,” she said as the highest-ranking U.S. representative to visit Kosovo.

Power visited a local farm and food processing plant for two days. She spoke to Kosovo-Serbia peacemakers and young entrepreneurs at an innovation hub.

At a press conference, she added, “Normalization is really, really good for business.” “Normalization will benefit our youth.”

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met in February to endorse the EU’s 11-point plan. Two presidents tentatively agreed on implementation during a March summit in North Macedonia.

Power said, “We hope the parties will come to the next stage of EU-mediated discussions with very specific proposals.

As the Ukraine war rages, Washington and Brussels have increased efforts to resolve the dispute.

Serbia and Kosovo have been ordered to normalize relations to join the EU. Tensions remain despite a tentative agreement to support an EU plan.

Power acknowledged that both countries faced severe political choices.

“They’re ahead. “If they were easy, they would have been choices made long ago,” she remarked.

Power addressed two contentious subjects, first encouraging Kosovo to establish an association of Serb-majority municipalities to manage local education, health care, land planning, and economic growth.

Kosovo’s Constitutional Court judged a 2013 agreement on that plan unlawful since it excluded other ethnicities and potentially include executive powers.

Power also asked Kosovo Serbs to return to local government employment in the north, where majority of the ethnic Serb minority lives. They boycotted those seats in November and a snap election last month to protest the association’s creation.

Serbia brutally repressed separatist ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998, sparking the conflict. 13,000 Albanians died. Serbia left when NATO intervened in 1999.

Serbia, Russia, and China have rejected Kosovo’s independence, while Washington and other EU nations have.