Nuland to Press Serbia on Talks With Kosovo

Ahead of her arrival in Belgrade, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland urged Serbia and Kosovo to make courageous decisions in order to achieve further progress in the EU-led dialogue process.

According to the Belgrade daily newspaper Blic, Nuland credits Serbia and Kosovo with making some progress - and the US wants 2015 to be a year of additional improvement.

"We want 2015 to be a year of progress in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina so that the EU can open the first chapters in the negotiations with Serbia and sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement with Kosovo," Blic cited Nuland as saying on July 13.

Latest talks between Serbia and Kosovo brokered by the EU on June 29 ended with no signed agreements. 

Four key issues remain outstanding between Serbia and its former province: telecommunications, energy, the formation of the Association of Serbian Municipalities and freedom of movement between the Serbian and Albanian parts of the divided town of Mitrovica.

Nenad Djurdjevic, coordinator of Belgrade-based Forum for Ethnic Relations NGO, told BIRN that Nuland will push for cooperation during her talks in Belgrade while respecting Serbia's key role in the region.

"The US is mostly interested in regional issues, particulary Serbia's relations with Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia?The Americans want peace and cooperation in the Balkans and Serbia is among the key players," he said.

Djurdjevic added that Nuland will want to find out whether European integration is still the priority for all of Serbia's main political players since they sometimes make "dissonant statements."

"Nuland will certainly support the Serbian government's regional policy. The Serbian Prime Minister's departure for Srebrenica...