After Agreement, Kosovo and Serbia Argue Over Implementation

Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti complained on Tuesday that Belgrade is trying to avoid commitments that Serbia President Aleksandar Vucic made when the two countries verbally agreed on a normalisation plan and its implementation at the weekend.

"The other side [Serbia] can't speak against Kosovo's membership of international organisations, including the UN. It can't say that it will never recognise Kosovo because the basis of agreement is actually recognition," Kurti told media in Pristina.

But Vucic said on Sunday after the agreement that he "will not implement anything related to Kosovo's membership of the UN or any kind of actual or de jure recognition" of Kosovo.

Vucic's statement was echoed on Monday by Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, who said that Serbia only agreed to implement "what is up to our red lines".

Dacic explained that Serbia's red lines are "no recognition of Kosovo or membership of the UN".

European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell argued however that what Kurti and Vucic agreed in Ohrid in North Macedonia on Sunday represents "an important milestone in the process of normalisation of relations" between Kosovo and Serbia.

"I hope we will no longer be on crisis mode but on the implementation of agreements that were accepted on February 27," Borrell said.

Olivier Guerot, the French ambassador to Pristina, whose state co-authored the normalisation plan with Germany, said that the EU now will carefully monitor whether or not the agreement is respected and warned of 'consequences' to the side which does not fulfill its obligations.

"There will be consequences but, at this stage, we remain optimistic and encourage both sides to implement the agreements," Guerot told Radio...