June 18 – Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated on 18 June that he will not participate in the meeting with Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti, called by Brussel.
“I consider it meaningless to speak with someone who is not willing to speak,” Vučić said to journalists in Belgrade.
Vučić clarified that he will decide whether to “technically attend that meeting”, adding that it will be a strategic decision he will inform the public about.
“But speaking with Kurti, no,” he added as quoted by euronews.al on Sunday.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy invited Kurti and Vučić to a meeting scheduled for the following week.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo stated that he has not yet decided whether he will attend the Brussel meeting. On Saturday, 17 June, he stated to the media in Pristina that his team will respond to Borrell’s invitation at the beginning of the next week.
The invitation from Brussel for the meeting between the two leaders came after an escalation of tensions in northern Kosovo. Tensions in this predominantly Serbian-populated area began on 26 May when the Kosovo Police assisted newly elected Albanian mayors in entering municipal buildings, despite the opposition of the local Serbs.
Tensions peaked on 29 May when local Serbs clashed with NATO’s peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, KFOR. Dozens of people from both sides were injured in the clashes.
The Serbian leader also stated that Belgrade has requested a polygraph examination from the EU mission for the Rule of Law in Kosovo (EULEX) regarding the case of the three arrested Kosovo policemen. Vučić specified that the members of Serbia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, who made the arrest, are willing to undergo such an examination in order to determine the location where the Kosovo police officers were arrested.
