Serbian FM: Embassy was wrong, Trump, Biden messages different

NEWS 09.02.202122:10
TANJUG/ RADE PRELIĆ

Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic said on Tuesday that the US Embassy was wrong to say that Presidents Biden and Trump sent almost identical messages about Kosovo to President Vucic.

A US Embassy spokesman said earlier in the day that the administrations of former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden share views on Serbia’s foreign policy priority of membership in the European Union and the opinion that Belgrade should normalize relations with Pristina including mutual recognition.

“The normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations, as viewed by President Trump in last year’s message (on Serbian statehood day) and the issue of mutual recognition mentioned by President Biden do not hold the same meaning either formally and legally or in material terms, not even close to the same,” Selakovic said in a press release.

He recalled that Trump did not insist on mutual recognition but tended to search for an innovative solution with Serbia to truly stabilize the region, adding that this sentiment is not evident in Biden’s message “which does not mean that the new US president will not be in favor of a compromise between Belgrade and Pristina”.