Marinkovic: O'Brien is well acquainted with the relations between the Serbs and the Albanians

President of the Serbian-American Friendship Congress, Vladimir Marinkovic, who met with the newly appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Asia James O'Brien, and the US Special Envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar in Washington, says that the US is interested in strengthening its partnership with Serbia and sees Serbia as the most reliable partner in the region.

Regarding O'Brien's appointment as Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Asia, Marinkovic says that O'Brien is very familiar with our region, the situation, Serbia, and the relations between the Serbs and the Albanians.

"He was appointed just about ten days ago, and from what I could see from my brief conversation with him and with Escobar, the US is still interested in strengthening its partnership with Serbia and sees Serbia as the most reliable partner in the region, even though there is disagreement on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija's status. But as far as I could see, there is still room and an opportunity to reach a compromise, for all those initiatives that Serbia has had and President Vucic has had over the past few years, which is the economy. In Washington, they told me explicitly that US support for the Open Balkan initiative remained, primarily as a peace initiative that should provide for the free flow of goods, people, and capital, which could and should be a precondition for resolving key political issues in the region," Marinkovic says.

He adds that O'Brien, due to his knowledge of this region and the situation, will have a "very sensitive approach".

"How he will behave in the coming period, no one can know, but I certainly think it's good that as many people as possible are involved in this region, and that we remain in some small focus of the United States because it is evident that only they can guarantee everything that is agreed upon in the Balkans and that they can, in a constructive and fair manner, assess the behavior of any side involved in the dialogue. I primarily refer to the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, where Washington had a fair and balanced approach in the previous period," Marinkovic says.

Regarding the topic of the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities that he also discussed with O'Brien and Escobar, Marinkovic says that he received assurances that there will be insistence on it, although he notes that he was told the same thing last year.

"I talked about it and asked Escobar very specifically and received a clear answer: yes, it is a part of the international agreement, it should, must, we will insist on the implementation of CSM. We agreed on that, and that is something that everyone generally knows, and it needs to be openly stated that the CSM is the 'game-changer', as Americans say. If the CSM had been established when it should have, and it should have been created much earlier, but if CSM had existed during the previous year and a half or two, during the period of intense escalations and the pressure of Kurti on the Serbs, especially in northern Kosovo and Metohija, all this probably would not have happened. It would have been much easier to conduct a dialogue and work on a long-term solution that would provide long-term stability and peace. We will see how things develop, and we expect the US to put pressure on Kurti to start implementing and creating the CSM, which would solve a significant percentage of the problems. The Americans and Europeans know this, and now the ball is in their court," Marinkovic says.