Gulic: The West sees progress in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue only through the recognition of Kosovo

Milan Gulic, a research associate at the Institute for Contemporary History, stated that yesterday's round of negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina had shown that the dialogue process was "without novelty" because the West considered "normalization" exclusively as the recognition of Kosovo.

"In today's times, the West mostly views progress in dialogue as Serbia's withdrawal from Kosovo and Metohija, and this has been done continuously since 1999. Even the little sovereignty that remains is gradually being withdrawn, and this progress boils down to the dialogue where one side gains everything and the other side gains nothing. That is not a real dialogue, but it is simply the outline of the relationships in the world at this moment," Gulic told Kosovo Online.

Commenting on yesterday's seven-hour negotiations in Brussels between the chief negotiators, Petar Petkovic and Besnik Bislimi, which ended without results, Gulic said that "there have been no particular novelties for a long time."

"I wouldn't say there are any particular novelties. Simply put, Pristina has had serious support from the most significant Western countries for a long time, and it is aware of this and conducts its policy accordingly. It often makes demands, and despite the strong reactions, it mostly gets what it wants in the end," Gulic said.

He adds that it is wrong to conclude that the deadlock is solely the responsibility of Prime Minister Albin Kurti or the Kosovo leadership since 1999.

"I would say that this has been the multi-decade policy of the Albanians, who did the same in socialist Yugoslavia. They would make demands through demonstrations, which were brutally suppressed, and in the end, the demands would be met. In this case, everything will go in that direction as well," Gulic believes.