Tanaskovic: Western policy regarding Kosovo with a unified goal, we must not overlook nuances

Although different views have been heard from Berlin and Washington in the previous period regarding the conditions Kosovo should meet to become a member of the Council of Europe, retired professor and diplomat Darko Tanaskovic says that when it comes to major policies, there are not two Western policies, but only tactical operationalization of policy with a specific goal, which in this case means achieving acceptance of Kosovo as an internationally recognized state, even by Serbia.

"However, we must be careful because when we say that it is all the same policy, we overlook some nuances that are sometimes not insignificant and that could be used as a certain maneuvering space, if nothing else, to slow down that process because time is a very important factor in history that is often neglected," Tanaskovic says for Kosovo Online.

He points out that there is a great deal of tactics in the sometimes different statements of influential members of the international community.

"It exists because their goals in other fields in some other events change according to those circumstances, and those are events that they cannot fully control as they would like. That is why there is a constant calculation as to what extent such an approach to resolving, from their point of view, the Kosovo issue would be better in terms of realizing their interests. What would be better: to give Serbia a little room to breathe and seek maneuvering space to achieve their ultimate goal, or to put more pressure on Serbia and give full support to the authorities in Pristina? It is the same in the case of admission to the Council of Europe, and I think that efforts will be made to achieve that in the foreseeable future," Tanaskovic stated.

In major crisis situations where much is at stake in the world, our interlocutor emphasizes, that if someone is perceived as one of those crisis areas, they thereby become significant.

"I would be very happy if we were not interesting to anyone in that way. But that kind of interest leads to greater attention being paid to your arguments in order to see how to deal with you to achieve the ultimate goal. We have a chance there because nothing is completely resolved for a short-term and medium-term period, even though everyone is convincing us by citing certain dates as a kind of psychological warfare that, by this date, it must be resolved, it must be resolved by the US elections, and so on. I believe that we must not neglect the nuances that exist, but at the same time, we must be aware of the fact that it is still a part of the same policy with the ultimate and always the same goal," Tanaskovic says.

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag, Michael Roth, has previously stated that the "additional conditions imposed by the United States on Kosovo for entry into the Council of Europe are unfair." Previously, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Gabriel Escobar stated that in addition to returning land to the Visoki Decani Monastery, there are also two other conditions related to land expropriation in the north and the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities.