The US Undersecretary of State meets with Vucic in Belgrade

2024-05-15 15:15:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The US Undersecretary of State for Public Affairs and Diplomacy, Liz Allen, met on Wednesday in Belgrade with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, with whom she talked about a number of issues, including Kosovo, the US State Department announced.

DASH said they talked about "global issues" and about Serbia's progress towards integration into the European Union, including through the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans.

"Allen underlined the importance of continuous progress towards the normalization of agreements with Kosovo through dialogue mediated by the EU", the announcement states.

On February 27, 2023 in Brussels, Kosovo and Serbia had reached the Basic Agreement, while on March 18 in Ohrid, agreement was reached on the Annex of the implementation of the agreement.

The EU has said that, although the agreements are legally binding, the parties are not implementing them.

In relation to the 6 billion euro plan that Allen referred to, the EU has said that for Kosovo and Serbia, the prerequisite to benefit from payments from this package is the constructive engagement in the normalization of neighboring relations.

Serbian President Vu?i?, meanwhile, during the meeting, asked Allen that the US increase its engagement in the Western Balkans region.

"I highlighted the pressures facing Serbia and the Serbs and asked the US to increase its commitment and use its influence to preserve the stability of the region and create preconditions for sincere cooperation and concrete progress," Vucic wrote on Instagram on May 15.

The US has supported the dialogue mediated by the EU between Kosovo and Serbia and has called on the parties to continuously implement the agreements reached by them.

Meanwhile, according to the announcement, Allen also underlined the importance of continuous cooperation "to combat the threat to European and regional stability, such as Russia's aggression against Ukraine and the Kremlin's efforts to spread disinformation."

Serbia, although a candidate for EU membership, has not adapted its foreign policy to that of Brussels, not imposing sanctions on Russia after the invasion of neighboring Ukraine./ Rel