NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has urged a de-escalation between Balkan neighbors Serbia and its former province Kosovo as tensions simmer over ethnically divisive mayoral appointments and three Kosovar police officers detained last week by Serbian authorities.
Neither side in the recent eruption into violence in Serb-majority north Kosovo has appeared eager to meet face-to-face at an emergency meeting called for this week by Brussels, with neither the Serbian nor Kosovar leadership bowing to international pressure and EU-mediated talks toward normalization seemingly stalled.
"Our forces, the KFOR, will continue to take all necessary measures to ensure a safe and secure environment," Stoltenberg told journalists in Berlin after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on June 18 that "technically I will appear at the meeting" but added that he won't meet directly with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
Kurti has not yet confirmed his participation.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced plans for the urgent meeting this week on June 15, one day after the three Kosovar police officers went missing during a patrol aimed at preventing smuggling.
Kosovar Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla accused Serbia of "entering the territory of Kosovo and kidnapping" the three policemen.
Belgrade said the officers were arrested "deep inside" Serbian territory.
KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, said in an initial statement that it was unclear where the police officers were at the time of their arrest.
On June 17, the United States urged Vucic to order the immediate and unconditional release of the Kosovar police officers under what Washington described as bogus charges.
It said "their arrest and ongoing detention on spurious charges has exacerbated an already tense situation,” the U.S. State Department added.
Vucic told reporters in Belgrade on June 18 that "I consider it pointless to talk to a person who is not ready to talk."
Belgrade does not recognize the independence of its former province, and tensions have crept back up since Borrell and another EU envoy claimed a breakthrough via an oral agreement during mediated talks in March.
Late last month, violent clashes between KFOR peacekeepers and protesting Serbs in northern Kosovo injured dozens after Pristina ignored Western pleas to avoid escalation and instead tried to forcibly seat ethnic Albanian mayors after boycotted elections in the mostly Serb north.
U.S. and EU officials have encouraged a quick return to implement a three-point plan outlined by the EU aimed at normalizing relations that have kept Kosovo out of international institutions and stoked ethnic resentments decades after bloody conflicts marked by ethnic cleansing.
On June 16, the U.S. envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said the likely scenario was that the three police officers were abducted from inside Kosovo or "inadvertently crossed the boundary."
The prosecutor’s office in the southwestern Serbian city of Kraljevo on June 16 ordered an investigation of the three Kosovo men and said they were being investigated on charges of unauthorized production, possession, carrying, and trafficking of weapons and explosive substances.
On June 17, Kosovo police told RFE/RL that two shock bombs exploded late on June 16 in North Mitrovica, causing no damages or injuries but raising tensions in the already nervous region near the Serbian border.