Any worsening of the already poor relations between Belgrade and Priština could lead to something that would fundamentally threaten regional stability and enable actors not from the region, primarily the Russian federation, to impact on shifting the focus of the world’s attention from the war in ukraine to the Western Balkans
Unfortunately, the cyclical tensions arising in Kosovo could destabilise the situation across the wider region of the Western Balkans and Southeast Europe. The only sure way to prevent and reduce them is to accelerate the resumption of dialogue on the normalisation process, which started in 2011 and is today clearly confronted by more than one crisis that it has faced. However, any absence of dialogue and any worsening of the already poor relations between Belgrade and Priština could lead to something that would fundamentally threaten regional stability and simultaneously enable the strengthening of other actors not from the region, primarily the Russian Federation, which at this juncture could impact on shifting the focus of the world’s attention from the war in Ukraine to the Western Balkans.
The eu unfortunately hasn’t offered adequate or timely responses to conflicts in the Western Balkans. I think we should nonetheless expect the u.S. To promote the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština, directly and indirectly I.E., to somehow ease these decidedly complex relations
Will this situation lead to the further marginalising of Serbia and the Western Balkans? Everything depends on how Serbia positions itself in the context of the dialogue. I think that whether or not there will be marginalisation depends on the dialogue linked to the Franco-German plan to regulate relations between Belgrade and Priština, which recently also received the support of the U.S. Thus, Serbia’s position will depend on the response to that initiative, and we should also consider the extremely complex situation linked to Serbia’s non-compliance with the respective measures against the Russian Federation being implemented by the EU.
It would be good if the EU redefined itself regarding the Western Balkans, but this is unlikely given that it didn’t offer adequate or timely responses when other crises involving the Western Balkans arose. I think we should nonetheless expect the U.S. to promote the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština, directly and indirectly i.e., to somehow ease these decidedly complex relations.
