The White House’s sloppy agreement does little to advance dialogue, and comes at a high price.
Despite the unpredictability that surrounded the negotiations, one thing was clear from the start about the much-hyped US effort to normalise relations between Serbia and Kosovo: it would be light on substance and heavy on publicity.
So it came as no big surprise that the result – two separate documents signed by each party individually – reflected the superficiality and lack of planning involved. Essentially a restatement of things already agreed between Kosovo and Serbia, the primary purpose of Friday’s “deal” was not to advance dialogue but to advance US President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
Kosovo and Serbia have jointly signed multiple agreements and proclamations in the past. And yet, for all the supposed high-level political attention paid to this agreement, US Ambassador Richard Grenell couldn’t get the parties to issue a unified statement – raising questions about the legal status of the signed documents and reflecting a degree of sloppiness that comes with prioritising speed and showiness over content.
None of these supposed victories move the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue forward in any respect.
Navy Vet
Article URL : https://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_trumps_kosovo_show_no_big_deal