Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic traveled to northern Kosovo on Monday, marking the first trip by a senior official from Belgrade to the former breakaway province in years after a recent bout of unrest.
The visit comes just over a week after Serbia and Kosovo signed a landmark agreement that will allow free movement of their citizens between the long-standing rivals’ territories.
The deal follows weeks of negotiations in Brussels after northern Kosovo was rocked by riots this summer, in which Serb protesters blocked border crossings and shot at police over a plan by Kosovan authorities to introduce a new set of travel documents for people traveling with enter the territory with Serbian identity cards.
In the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, about a thousand local Serbs greeted Brnabic, waving Serbian flags and holding signs reading “We have only one prime minister” and “Welcome to Serbia, holy land of Kosovo.”
“I sincerely hope that the temporary institutions in Pristina will really commit to dialogue and find some compromise that is needed for long-term normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina,” Brnabic said during a press conference, referring to the Kosovan authorities .
“We need that – not just for our European integration – but for ourselves,” she added.
Serbia has been a candidate to join the European Union since 2012, but most experts doubt the country stands a chance of joining the bloc until Belgrade negotiates a deal to normalize ties with Kosovo.
– Heavy security –
Brnabic’s delegation traveled with a heavy security detail as NATO troops were stationed along major roads in the area and a helicopter circled overhead.
During her one-day tour of Kosovo, the 46-year-old was supposed to visit educational institutions, visit a Serbian Orthodox monastery and chat with local farmers.
The area has long been a flashpoint between the two communities after the bitter war in the 1990s that sparked a NATO bombing campaign that paved the way for Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008.
Serbia deeply rejects Kosovo’s breakaway status and has never recognized its independence.
Serbs in northern Kosovo have long refused to recognize Pristina’s authority and have remained largely loyal to the Serb government in Belgrade.
Another point of tension between the two countries has been the number plates Pristina has imposed throughout Kosovo, including for the Serb minority living in the north.
On Sunday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said both Germany and France had offered to send additional envoys to help in negotiations with Pristina.
The Albanian-majority of Kosovo fought Serb forces in 1999 with the support of NATO fighter jets.
In 2008 it declared its independence, which was recognized by most, but not all, EU member states.
The recent unrest in Kosovo prompted NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg to declare that the 3,700 NATO peacekeepers stationed in Kosovo would do whatever is necessary to ensure a secure environment.
