The signing in Washington of the agreement between Donald Trump, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti left speechless in the Balkans, as the latter two seemed to be extras of a carefully staged organized, Friday, September 4, by the American President and, from a distance, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu. The question of the Balkans has taken a back seat, eclipsed by the announcement of the future opening of the embassies of the two countries in Jerusalem.
Designated as an agreement of “Economic standardization” by Mr. Trump, it is the resumption of the agreements already signed in March on the opening of a rail and air line between Belgrade and Pristina, but still not implemented, as many agreements between the two capitals in the past, while Belgrade has never recognized the independence, declared in 2008, of the former Yugoslav autonomous province.
It also provides for the mutual recognition of university degrees or even Kosovo’s participation in the free movement area currently being negotiated in the Balkans. The two countries must also cease for a year their diplomatic war around the recognition of the independence of Kosovo by other countries of the world and international institutions.
“A great day for peace in the Middle East”
But Washington’s real goal soon transpired from the signing ceremony held in the Oval Office. Donald Trump notably called the Israeli prime minister live to discuss the point of the agreement that is most important to him: the mutual recognition of Israel and Kosovo, and the relocation of the Serbian embassy to Jerusalem. ” These guys [les Kosovars et les Serbes] have fought for years, you and the Palestinians, it is nothing compared to them ”, the US president explained to a visibly uncomfortable Kosovar prime minister.
Mr. Trump also tweeted that it was about “A great day for peace in the Middle East”. “The Muslim-majority Kosovo and Israel have agreed to establish diplomatic relations. Other Arab and Islamic nations will follow soon ”, he promised, visibly ignoring the secular nature of the Kosovar state and its non-Arab identity. Benjamin Netanyahu also assured that Kosovo, whose independence Israel had always refused to recognize, would be “The first Muslim-majority country to open an embassy in Jerusalem”.
Belgrade and Pristina also signed two different agreements on this point separately with Washington, and not together, which enabled President Vucic to assure, on leaving the White House that it was still out of the question to recognize the independence of Kosovo. Enough to put into perspective the prospects for normalization of relations between Serbia and its former province with an Albanian majority.
Mr. Trump’s special envoy for the Balkans, former US Ambassador to Berlin Richard Grenell, has lauded his method of focusing negotiations on economic rather than political issues. “It’s an economic standardization, Europeans will be very happy”, he assured, while negotiations are being conducted in parallel in Brussels under the aegis of the EU.
