The president of the Austrian Institute for International Affairs, Wolfgang Petritsch, is skeptical that there will be progress in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue even in 2024. He says that this year’s early elections in Serbia and the regular elections next year in the European Union, and in the United States of America, show that there will be no concrete progress in the dialogue, in the implementation of the Brussels and Ohrid agreement. According to him, the next year will focus more on maintaining peace and security between the two countries and the region as a whole.

The former EU Special Envoy for Kosovo and former EU chief negotiator at the Kosovo peace talks, Wolfgang Petritsch, in an interview for KosovaPress, welcomes the increase in the number of NATO forces in Kosovo, to prevent, as he says, incidents like the one on September 24 in Banjska in Zveçan, an aggression which the Kosovo institutions call terrorist and sponsored by Serbia.

He says that extra care is needed so that “nothing happens on the border between Kosovo and Serbia”.

In this regard, he emphasizes that there is new determination and extreme vigilance from the Americans for security in the region and focus on the implementation of obligations in the dialogue.

Speaking about the security situation, Petritsch says that the international community has become much more alert for the region, while emphasizing that preventing war in the Balkans is the number one priority for both the EU and the US.

For KosovaPress, the president of the Austrian Institute for International Affairs, Wolfgang Petritsch, also spoke about the OSCE summit that was held this week in Skopje, North Macedonia.