French Macron to join Kosovo dialogue; EU to appoint special rep to WB

Ministarstvo spoljnih poslova Srbije

Ivica Dacic, Serbia’s Foreign Minister, said on Friday he had talks with the French President New York, adding Emmanuel Macron told him he would join the Belgrade – Pristina dialogue on the normalisation of relations after the early elections in Kosovo due on October 6, the Beta news agency reported.

On Thursay, Radio Free Europe (RFE) cited its diplomatic sources from Brussels who said the European Union would appoint its special representative to the Western Balkans after the hearing of the next bloc’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell before the European Parliament (EP) due on October 7.

Dacic’s office quoted Macron as saying he was waiting for the Kosovo vote to end to take part in solving problems in the dialogue.

The EU will thus join the US which has earlier appointed Matthew Palmer as its special representative to the Western Balkans, showing increasing interest, and Washington and Brussels attempt to have a most prominent role in the region after the West said Russia, China and the Gulf states had been spreading their influence to the Western Balkans.

Dacic, who also met the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, said the Turkish leader told him he was looking forward to visiting Serbia soon.

For his part, Erdoğan said that the relations between Turkey and Serbia were at the highest level in recent history, the statement said.