Former US ambassador to Serbia, Christopher Hill, does not expect the US to intervene in resolving problems in the Balkans, including the dispute between Kosovo and Serbia, as it has done in the past.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe, Hill emphasizes that this region is not a daily priority for the US and solutions must come from within.
"I think there will be an effort by the US to encourage the Balkan countries to start solving their own problems. I think the time when countries came to us or to some Western European country to complain about their neighbors, [is over] and people are tired of that. We are not living in the 1990s anymore. We are in a very different era. So, I think the time when a Balkan country came to us to complain about another Balkan country, [is over], because people don't have time for these things anymore. They want to see models of cooperation within the region, and not a country going to some favorite member of the international community and saying: Help us," Hill said, according to A2.
In his interview, the American diplomat emphasizes that Kosovo should move forward with the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities. According to him, Serbia has work to do, but underlines that it is helping Ukraine, the main priority in Europe, according to him: "It is quite disappointing that we do not manage to understand or do not reach the point where we agree on the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities, but it is blocked by issues that are more propaganda than real. We need to see that agreement fully implemented and part of it is the idea that Serbs in northern Mitrovica be guaranteed a limited autonomy. It is about an association that deals with issues like education and hospitals, so topics of this nature. Such models exist all over the world, especially in Europe. And, since the then Prime Minister [of Kosovo, Hashim] Thaçi signed it, it had to be implemented."
Finally, Hill emphasizes that Serbia is not threatening the territory of Kosovo.
According to him, in fact, all people in the Balkans talk about territory, they talk about land. But the real problem in the Balkans, which people need to understand, is not land, but people. (A2 Televizion)
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