German Foreign Minister visits troubled Balkans
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Berlin, April 12, 207 (dpa/NAN) German Foreign Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, on Wednesday embarked on a two-day tour of Serbia and Kosovo with tensions between both sides at the focus of his meetings.
Gabriel said he would voice “support for democratic development and rule of law” in all countries of the region, saying, “we see that some wounds of the past still run deep and still keep the tensions.”
Kosovo is Serbia’s runaway province with a majority Albanian population that declared independence in 2008, but which Belgrade still regards as its own.
Kosovo Albanians fought Belgrade’s rule in 1998 and 1999, and the conflict drew NATO into an intervention against Serbia.
The European Union brokered normalisation talks between Belgrade and Pristina, allowing both to move closer towards membership as a reward, but little of what was agreed to has been implemented.
A small NATO-led presence remains in Kosovo since tensions remain high, both between Serbia and Kosovo and between the Serb minority and Pristina authorities within Kosovo.
Serbia is now an EU membership candidate, while Kosovo is a prospective candidate.
Albania, which Gabriel is to visit, and Macedonia are also candidates and Bosnia is another prospective candidate.
“I will assure my counterparts that the path toward the European Union remains open if they choose reforms and progress instead of divisions and stalemate,” the minister said. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Abdullahi Yusuf