Gabriel Escobar

Answering a question about talks with EU and US envoys for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, as well as Pristina's request for re-registration, Vui says that we are trying to behave constructively and reasonably, protecting our interests, peace and stability.

President Aleksandar Vucic said after meeting the EU and US envoys for Kosovo, Miroslav Lajcak and Gabriel Escobar, in Belgrade on Thursday that the "talks were not easy" but efforts to find a deal to resolve tensions with Kosovo over vehicle licence plates will continue.

"Tough and long meeting just now with President Vucic. We appreciate the President's commitment to peace and stability. The work continues", U.S. Envoy for the Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, stated after the meeting with President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vui.

The EU's special envoy for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Miroslav Lajk, and the US special representative for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, left the building of the General Secretariat of the President of the Republic on Andriev venac at around 5:40 p.m.
Vucic said that the talks with Lajk and Escobar were not easy.

EU and US envoys Miroslav Lajcak and Gabriel Escobar landed in Pristina on Wednesday in an attempt to bridge differences between Kosovo and Serbia ahead of September 1, when the Kosovo authorities intend to bring in regulations on vehicle licence plates and ID documents for border crossing which Serbs strongly oppose.

The text also states that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will not hesitate to get directly engaged in the talks between Serbian President Aleksandar Vui and the Prime Minister of the Provisional Institutions of the Republic of Kosovo Albin Kurti, if necessary, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

The meeting is also attended by the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, and the EU Special Representative for Dialogue, Miroslav Lajak. The media reports that the U.S. Special Representative for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, entered the building of the European Service for Foreign Affairs in Brussels shortly before noon.

Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch, the EU's Special Envoy for Kosovo (1998-1999), EU chief negotiator at the Kosovo peace talks in Rambouillet and Paris, was optimistic prior to this conflict, anticipating that the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina would move forward in the second half of the year.

"The Western Balkans is a central part of the vision of a whole, free and prosperous Europe. That is the vital interest of the United States and at the core of its foreign policy", Gabriel Escobar said at the subcommittee session of the American Senate for Foreign Affairs for Europe and regional security cooperation.

According to the EU office in Pristina, they will stay in Kosovo and Metohija from today until Wednesday, February 2.