TIRANA, September 3 – Around 60 European and American politicians asked in July for a more balanced approach of the West in relations with Kosovo and Serbia.
Bodo Weber, political analyst and senior fellow at the Democratization Policy Council in Berlin, was quoted by the Express on Sunday as saying that he sees the letter as evidence that the West is changing course towards Serbia or Vucic.
“This change would be welcome, but unfortunately we do not see such a turnaround on the horizon. On the contrary, the letter of several Western parliamentarians attracted the attention of the Western media, which usually rarely writes about the region,” Weber said in a written response to VOA.
In the July letter, US and EU lawmakers criticized Vucic for his close ties to and support for Milorad Dodik, the nationalist president of Republika Srpska in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dodik has been sanctioned by the United States for “undermining the Dayton peace accords”, a US-sponsored deal that ended the war in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Another obstacle to better relations between Belgrade and the West is the pro-Russian stance of Serbian spy chief, Aleksandar Vulin, who has been sanctioned by the United States for alleged involvement in illegal arms shipments, drug trafficking and misuse of public posts. /argumentum.al
