Lajcak: Dialogue obligations must be met, discussions to be continued soon

BRUSSELS - The EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak said that, during last weekend's visits to Belgrade and Pristina, a "big five" of Western envoys had expressed the expectation the parties would meet the obligations from the dialogue, and noted that any delays or conditions would be unacceptable.

"I travelled together with the Chief foreign and security advisers of France, Germany and Italy, as well as US Western Balkan envoy (Gabriel) Escobar. In both Pristina and Belgrade, we discussed with (Serbian) President (Aleksandar) Vucic and (Pristina's) PM (Albin) Kurti on how to advance normalisation of relations and make progress on the implementation of the Agreement on the Path to Normalisation. The security situation in the north of Kosovo was also a topic of discussion," Lajcak wrote in a Facebook post.

"We underlined to both leaders that the events of September 24 constitute a clear and unprecedented escalation, which also demonstrates that both de-escalation and normalisation are now more urgent than ever. Together with our partners, we stand united in condemning the terrorist attacks and stress that all perpetrators must be brought to justice, expecting full cooperation from Serbia in this regard," he noted.

"The events of September 24 don't change the fact that Kosovo and Serbia entered into the Agreement on the Path to Normalisation earlier this year.

In our discussions we conveyed the expectation for Kosovo and Serbia to fully meet their Dialogue obligations. Any conditions or delays are unacceptable.

I thank my partners for this visit and we will continue our discussions soon," he added.