Ivic: The question is whether Pristina will seize the opportunity offered by the US

Petar Ivic, an associate of the Pupin Initiative, says that the message from the State Department – that it hopes to strengthen its partnership with the future Government of Kosovo, but that this government needs to carry out actions that advance the shared agenda for regional peace, stability, and mutual economic prosperity – is very clear and represents an outstretched hand conditioned on concrete results.

“This is an unequivocal statement. It is very clear what can be expected, and it is an attempt to reset relations after Kurti nevertheless won the Kosovo elections. This represents an outstretched hand for another chance, but one conditioned on very concrete results, and the question is whether the administration in Pristina will seize that opportunity,” Ivic told Kosovo Online.

According to him, US interests in the region are manifold, and Kosovo’s actions during 2025 were anything but aligned with most of them.

“These interests range from countering what they perceive as malign Chinese and Russian influence, to economic diversification, peace, stability, the European path, and economic development. What Kosovo delivered in 2025 was anything but most of those interests. They hope that this opportunity will be used in the direction of fulfilling those interests, but through unilateral and destructive actions, especially toward the minority Serb population, the fulfillment of those interests is nowhere in sight,” our interlocutor assesses.

When it comes to the economic interests that America has in Kosovo, Ivic says these primarily concern energy and investments.

“Recently there has also been talk about rare minerals, which, as we see, are very important to Trump globally. However, those reserves are still largely unexplored. But this is not mainly about economic interests, rather more about geopolitical ones, because economic interests spill over into the geopolitical sphere. It is more about stability in the region, removing Russian and Chinese influence, and a direct military presence, such as the Bondsteel base,” Ivic notes.

The State Department announced after the snap elections held in Kosovo that the US hopes to strengthen its partnership with the next Government of Kosovo.

“We hope to strengthen our partnership, including the continuation of the strategic dialogue. However, achieving this will require actions that advance our shared agenda for regional peace, stability, and mutual economic prosperity,” the State Department said, as reported by Teve 1 television.