Grenell: "3 years after the Washington Agreement relations between Kosovo and Serbia deteriorated"

Photo: Tanjug/Zoran Zestic

On the occasion of the third anniversary of the Washington Agreement, which was signed at the White House, the former United States envoy for dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Richard Grenell, said that after the end of Donald Trump's presidency, "relations between Kosovo and Serbia have deteriorated."

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Grenell told Kosovo Online that he was "sadly forced to acknowledge" that.

"Today, on the third Anniversary of the historic Washington Agreement signed in the Oval Office by the governments of Serbia and Kosovo and presided over by President Trump, we're sadly forced to acknowledge that relations between these two friends of America have deteriorated," Grenell said.

According to, relations between Kosovo and Serbia suffered because the current US President Joe Biden abandoned his country's diplomatic, political and economic leadership.

"As President Trump instructed me before we began negotiating the 2020 agreement, the only way to move the parties toward a better, safer future would be to drop the same failed demands and talking points and reject the same political impasses of the previous 20 years. The unlimited expectation that historical wrongs must be made right before peace, security, and prosperity can follow only perpetuates a conflict that has already cost these societies too much," Grenell stated.

He stressed that the US owes the youth of Kosovo and Serbia the creation of a better future.

"We owe it to young people in Serbia and Kosovo to reject political stunts, symbolic victories and settling accounts, and instead work towards creating a common economic future. It is naive to count on foreign business expansion in the region, where the physical security of people and property is guaranteed by the presence of NATO troops," Grenell pointed out.

In the last two and a half years, there has been an increase in violence between the parties, according to Grenell, and depending on that, the number of NATO troops have, and economic prospects, particularly in Kosovo, have decreased.

President Biden's decision to "cede American diplomatic and economic engagement in the region to the analytical paralysis of the European Union has only made things worse," he said.

"The agreement of 2020 envisioned a shared and growing economic future for the parties in which trade barriers were removed, new air and ground transportation links were built, the Serbian government agreed to diversify its energy supply away from Russia, and the government of Kosovo agreed to use the U.S. government's feasibility study of Lake Gazivode/Ujmani (referred to neutrally as Lake Trump) to develop water resource opportunities, including clean energy," Grenell stated.

He stressed that with the Washington Agreement, the parties undertook to respect freedom of religion and the protection of cultural and religious buildings.

"Under President Trump, the parties pledged to protect and promote freedom of religion, including renewed interfaith communication, protection of religious sites, continued restitution of World War 2-era heirless and unclaimed property, and to expedite efforts to locate and identify the remains of missing persons from the Yugoslav Wars," Grenell wrote, and added:

"They also agreed to a number of bipartisan priorities pushed for years by the U.S. Department of State, designating Hizballah in its entirety as a terrorist organization and restricting its operations and financial activities in the region, committing to help decriminalize homosexuality in the 69 countries where it is currently illegal, and expanding diplomatic relations with Israel and other embattled US allies."

According to him, the fact that the moratorium on Kosovo's membership in international institutions has not been extended is an indication that Trump's achievements have been undone.

"Perhaps the biggest sign that these Trump-era accomplishments came undone was the failure of the Biden administration and its EU counterparts to simply extend the agreed-upon one-year moratorium on Kosovo's search for new membership in international organizations in exchange for a one-year moratorium on Serbia's de-recognition campaign against Kosovo," Grenell said.

He added that more must be done if we want peace and prosperity between Kosovo and Serbia, but that the Balkans are not a priority for Biden.

"Sadly, however, Joe Biden and his Administration have made it clear that the Balkans and its people are not their priority. It is clear that the people of Kosovo, Serbia, and the wider Balkans greatly benefited from Donald Trump's tenure in the White House, and I sincerely hope we will see another Trump Administration to once again make the Balkan region a top priority for the United States," Grenell concluded.

(Telegraf.rs)