Germany's Merkel confirms discussing Kosovo with US Trump

Tanjug / AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed on Tuesday that the issue of Kosovo was on the agenda in her telephone discussion with the US President Donald Trump, N1 reported.

Following her meeting with Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic in Berlin, Merkel said that she and Trump talked about “the situation between Serbia and Kosovo.”

Merkel reiterated her opposition to changes in the borders in the Balkans, adding that a possible Kosovo-Serbia agreement to change the border could have consequences in other parts of the region.

She said that the existing territories had values and that any solution should be brought carefully to avoid effects on other countries.

In what seems to be a slight turn in the international community view on the border changes in the region, Trump’s security advisor has said that Washington does not exclude the correction of boundaries, while the European Union has added that Belgarde and Pristina need room to reach an agreement.

Merkel and Trump apparently discussed the proposals coming from Belgrade and Pristina. Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic mentioned “the demarcation with Albanians,” while his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci talked about border correction.

Vucic did not specify what that the demarcation meant, while Thaci said that the correction should be the annexation of Serbia’s southern region of Presevo Valley mostly populated by the ethnic Albanians, and excluded any division of Kosovo or the exchange of the territories with Belgrade.