Serbian President Denies Reaching Deal With Kosovo in US

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday denied reports that he had brokered a "great deal" with the President of Kosovo during their overlapping visits to the United States.

During his visit, Vucic met US national security adviser Robert O'Brien, President Donald Trump's special aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner and the US special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Richard Grenell. But he also met Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who was also in the US, on March 2.

"During the last couple of days there was a lot of untruthful news, fake news, that great deals were made, that a plan has been made, that everything is already known. No, it has not been discussed and nothing like that exists," Vucic said on Wednesday. 

He said his talks with Thaci had been limited to bread-and-butter issues. "We talked about the topics for our regional gatherings: how to open up a faster flow of people, goods, services, capital, airlines, railway lines", he added, and repeated that there will be no substantive negotiations with Kosovo until it totally scraps the tariffs it imposed on goods from Serbia.

President Thaci asked to address the Kosovo parliament about this meeting, which did not allow him to, saying he had sought permission to address MPs too late.

Thaci announced that he will hold a press conference later on Wednesday after Speaker Vjosa Osmani rejected his request to hold a session of the Assembly.

Media reported that the new Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, a vocal opponent of Thaci's handling of relations with Serbia, had meanwhile urged Thaci to "coordinate" foreign policy with the government.

"The representation of Kosovo in the international arena should be dignified and we can achieve this by being harmonised in...