Joksimovic: Trump may re-engage in the Belgrade–Pristina dialogue

The Director of the Center for Foreign Policy, Aleksandra Joksimovic, told Kosovo Online that she believes US President Donald Trump may, in the upcoming period, attempt to address the issue of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, as he has mentioned this topic twice recently. However, she emphasized that it remains to be seen whether the US administration will have the capacity to fully commit to it.

Joksimovic notes that Trump gave two contradictory statements within a short time frame, one in which he claimed to have prevented an open conflict between Serbia and Kosovo before the Washington Agreement, and another, more recently, in which he spoke about the issue in the present tense.

It appears, she says, that Trump is strongly motivated to resolve important global issues.

"He tried to resolve the issue of the war in Ukraine, but has not succeeded so far. Regarding Israel and Gaza, and later Israel and Iran, he also made some attempts, primarily through negotiations with Iran, which also failed and ended in a conflict involving the US. The issue of the nuclear agreement now seems to be off the negotiating table, and it is unclear whether the recent attacks have destroyed Iran’s full potential to produce nuclear weapons. The question arises whether the US, given the number of global issues it is already addressing, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, has the capacity to deal with other topics as well, and at what point. It is possible that, in the absence of successful negotiation processes elsewhere, the US may return to the Belgrade–Pristina dialogue,” Joksimovic stated.

She points out that such assessments are also shared by analysts like Charles Kupchan, a member of the US Council on Foreign Relations and a former participant in previous administrations.

Joksimovic recalls that the Washington Agreement was one of Trump’s final moves during his first term, and now the major question is how he would choose to engage with this issue going forward.

“Would he insist on fully implementing the Washington Agreement, which has not been fully implemented, or would he propose new, innovative solutions? What I presume would remain characteristic, based on recent examples, is a lack of coordination with the European Union. On the issues of Ukraine, Israel, and Iran, the US essentially sidelined the EU and its partners. But I would remind that before the signing of the Washington Agreement, there were other ideas about how the Belgrade–Pristina dialogue could be resolved, and it was precisely European countries that, through their influence, halted the development of some ideas in the way Trump envisioned at the time,” Joksimovic emphasized.

Whether the circumstances have changed today and whether Trump holds more or less influence regarding the Belgrade–Pristina dialogue, she says, remains to be seen, just as it remains uncertain whether the US administration will have the capacity to fully dedicate itself to this issue.