Putin Will Back Kosovo-Serbia Deal, Thaci Insists

After briefly meeting Russia's President in Paris at the Armistice commemorations, Kosovo's President, Hashim Thaci, said on Monday that Vladimir Putin told him he would support a peaceful agreement between Kosovo and Serbia.

"In Paris, I met President Vladimir Putin, focusing on dialogue on the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, for a comprehensive, binding agreement," Thaci wrote on Facebook.

"On this topic, President Putin was clear: "If you achieve a peaceful agreement, Russia will support it," he wrote.

The brief meeting in Paris was the first meeting that Kosovo's President ever had with Putin, head of a country that has staunchly championed Serbia and opposed Kosovo's independence.

Thaci said he also discussed an agreement with other world leaders including the US, French and German leaders, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, after which Thaci wrote that all of them supported a final, comprehensive agreement between Kosovo and Serbia.

Thaci did not clarify whether supporting an agreement also meant supporting his ideas on border correction between Kosovo and Serbia, under which Serbia's Presevo Valley would join Kosovo.

Suggestions of a territorial swap between Kosovo and Serbia as part of a final deal to normalise relations, with Kosovo receiving the Presevo Valley and Serbia getting Serb-majority northern Kosovo, have become increasingly controversial in recent months.

Austria was the latest country to clarify that it would support a peaceful agreement between two countries, even if it also meant border correction.

However, Germany remains strongly opposed to the idea, claiming it might result in a domino effect on other countries with border issues.  

During his...