U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet said that a final agreement on the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia will require "difficult choices and political courage."
In an interview on January 19 with RFE/RL, Chollet said he saw reasons for hope last week when he visited Pristina and Belgrade, but said Kosovo’s decision this week to turn away cars with what it says are illegal Serbian license plates is exactly the kind of development he didn’t want to see.
“When I was in the region last week, I made it very clear that the United States working with our European partners want to get out of the business of crisis diplomacy where we just careen from one crisis to another,” he said.
He wants the focus to shift to "getting down to the business at hand” and moving forward on the EU-led dialogue toward normalization based on mutual recognition.
The steps taken on January 18 by Pristina over the license plate issue “are not consistent with either the letter or the spirit of the agreements made in late November to which averted an earlier crisis,” he said.
Some cars bearing the abbreviation KM, which stands for the city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, were denied entry into Kosovo on January 18 because they had been re-registered in December. The November agreement said Serbia was to stop producing these license plates, and, according to Kosovo officials, re-registering existing ones.
Chollet said this type of unilateral action is not appropriate for either side to announce right now.
"We need to have a coordinated way forward so these sorts of things do not precipitate the kinds of crises we really need to avoid and distract our attention from the important work of the dialogue,” Chollet said in the interview.
Chollet spoke one day ahead of a visit to Kosovo by five international representatives, calling this an "important moment" and expressing hope that progress will be made in the dialogue process for the normalization of relations.
He said during his talks with Kosovar and Serbian leaders last week he wanted to make clear the importance the United States places on this process, the hopes Washington has for the process, and the potential opportunities that can come for both Kosovo and Serbia if they are able to normalize relations.
The upside of having an agreement moving toward normalization is very clear for Kosovo and very clear for Serbia, he said.
“In my view it would unquestionably make the lives of the people of Kosovo and Serbia better if they were able to sort this out and normalize the relationship along the lines that the EU proposal has outlined,” he said.
He also said that both governments need to be able to show willingness to compromise, which he thinks is possible.
“We are trying to come up with creative solutions to help them make those compromises,” he added.
Chollet also noted his push for the formation of an Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities (ASM) in Kosovo and his continued belief in its importance. The U.S. view is that it is a commitment that is consistent with Kosovo’s Constitution and does not create a Republic of Srpska-like entity within Kosovo.
“We're going to do our part to try to demystify the ASM in some ways because I think there's a lot of uncertainty about what the ASM is and what it isn't,” he said.