Kosovo says close to deal with Serbia to improve ties
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | March 14, 2013 22:16
Kosovo said on Thursday it was close to reaching an accord with Serbia to improve relations, with the European Union’s foreign policy chief visiting both capitals to press for a deal that would open the door to membership talks with Serbia.
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s 2008 secession, but is under pressure from the European Union to improve ties and help overcome a de facto ethnic partition between Kosovo’s Albanian majority and a small Serb pocket in the north.
“Right now we are at the beginning of the end in reaching an agreement to normalize relations between the state of Kosovo and Serbia,” Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci told reporters after meeting EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Pristina.
“We’re optimistic that things are moving in the right direction,” he said, in the most positive comments from the former guerrilla commander in months of negotiations with Serbia.
Ashton left for Belgrade to meet Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and did not speak to media.
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