Mitic: Pristina is in no hurry, dialogue is a farce under which a tragedy unfolds for the Serbian people

Aleksandar Mitic, a research fellow at the Institute for International Politics and Economics, says for Kosovo Online that yesterday's round of dialogue in Brussels was a continuation of a so-called "dialogue" that has not been a real dialogue for a long time and has been blocked for over a year in both formal and political terms.

“Lajcak, as they say, is just marking time, organizing meetings, and preparing reports, but he is doing nothing substantive to move the process forward. Even when a technical-level agreement is reached between the negotiators, the process progresses a bit but then stalls. Yesterday, we saw Belgrade raise a series of complaints about how Pristina is implementing what was previously agreed upon, but in essence, there is no progress for purely political reasons,” Mitic explained.

According to him, the Albanians are in no hurry to make any compromises due to the support they receive from Berlin, Washington, and the Quint group in general.

“Albin Kurti, in particular, is in no rush, especially as he is a few months away from elections and expects to achieve good results once again, based specifically on an anti-Serb policy, the policy of ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija. So, despite Lajcak announcing one or two more meetings by the end of the year, I don’t see any mechanism that could put pressure on Kurti to change anything before those elections. Even if the administration changes in America, it wouldn’t take effect until January 20 of next year, so there won’t be any significant moves there either,” Mitic said.

As he added, it is clear that there is no way to achieve any further political progress until the provisions for establishing the Community of Serb Municipalities, as requested by Belgrade, are fully implemented.

“Belgrade has already lowered its fundamental red lines and has no room for maneuver, given what is happening in Kosovo and Metohija. On the other hand, we see that Pristina doesn’t want to bring up the issue of the CSM until there is full normalization, which they expect to culminate in a comprehensive agreement, or as they hope, in de facto recognition of their unilateral declaration of independence. As long as the CSM issue isn’t taken seriously by Pristina or its allies and sponsors in terms of pressure on Kurti, there can be no movement from Belgrade’s side. I think Belgrade should have labeled this farce exactly as it is a long time ago,” Mitic said.

He also adds that he understands the need for the dialogue to continue.

“Petkovic said he will be in Brussels every time he is called to talk, but the fact is that this is unfortunately a game, a farce on one side but with catastrophic consequences for the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija. And that is, in essence, the worst part, as this farce is covering up a tragedy for our people,” Mitic concluded.