Tojcic: Serbia's strategic dialogue with the U.S. leads to a new approach in the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue

Lawyer Aleksa Tojcic from the Center for Social Stability believes that the signing of the strategic dialogue agreement is an indicator that the U.S. views Serbia as the most important country in the Western Balkans, and that this will produce a different approach to the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, which, he emphasizes, has completely failed under EU auspices.

"This is an indicator that the U.S. sees Serbia as the most important country in this part of the Balkans, and this will lead to an additional improvement in Serbia's foreign policy rating," Tojcic emphasized to Kosovo Online.

He adds that it is very important for Serbia to sign such an agreement with a country without which no significant issue can be resolved, especially in the Western Balkans.

"I expect this agreement to be a very solid basis for establishing relations with the future Trump administration, from which we expect at least a slight change in U.S. policy towards the Balkans," Tojcic specifies.

He anticipates that there will primarily be changes in the U.S. approach to the region.

"There may be certain changes concerning the policy towards the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, but also concerning the policy towards Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republic of Srpska, as well as U.S. policy towards Montenegro," the analyst believes.

He is also convinced that the U.S. will insist on sponsoring the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

"This is something that works in our favor given that the dialogue led under the auspices of the EU has experienced a complete failure. The EU has not shown an ounce of understanding for Serbian interests, which I do not expect to be the case with the U.S. Even in Donald Trump's first term, we could see that the Americans very much understood the Serbian position and were inclined to reach a certain agreement that would benefit both sides," Tojcic recalls.

He also emphasizes that Washington will not look favorably on unilateral moves by Pristina and reminds that in 2018, Trump's administration brought down the first government of Albin Kurti.

"I do not rule out that such a scenario could be repeated in the upcoming period if Kurti does not show certain signs of cooperativeness," Tojcic concludes.