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The head of USAID will stay in Serbia and Kosovo, an effort to reduce tensions

2023-05-08 18:13:02, Kosova & Bota CNA

US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power will be in Serbia and Kosovo this week to meet with the leaders of both countries as US and European diplomats work to stabilize relations between the two former wartime enemies, at a time of heightened tensions.

Ms. Power thus becomes the first head of the US Agency for International Development to travel to Serbia, which has close historical and cultural ties with Russia.

Serbia and Kosovo have often had hostile relations since Kosovo's separation from Serbia at the end of the Cold War. Friction between Serbia and Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority and an ethnic Serb minority, has returned amid general tensions since Russia's aggression in Ukraine last year.

Ms. Power will meet with the Prime Ministers and Presidents of both countries to encourage them to stay on the path of normalizing relations between them and continue to move towards membership in the European Union.

It will "underline USAID's support for Serbia's path to membership in the European Union through our partnership to foster economic growth and democratic development," USAID said in a statement.

Ms Power will be the first senior US government official to travel to the region since the European Union brokered a meeting between the two countries' leaders last week in Brussels, encouraging them to commit to peaceful dialogue.

The European Union has spent 12 years facilitating negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Serbia does not recognize its citizenship.

Brussels and the United States often intervene to ease tensions between the two capitals, especially in the past year since Russia attacked Ukraine.

The war in Kosovo erupted when ethnic Albanians rose up against Serbian rule and Serbia responded with brutal repression. About 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, were killed. NATO's military intervention eventually forced Serbia to withdraw from the territory of Kosovo.

Ms. Power will also meet in Serbia and Kosovo with members of civil society, business leaders, journalists and others, including former Serbian NBA player Vlade Divac and athletes with disabilities./ VOA