PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The United States on Friday suspended talks with Kosovo, saying the actions by its caretaker government were to blame for rising tensions and instability in the small Balkan country and the region.
Seven months after parliamentary elections in February, Kosovo still doesn’t have a functioning parliament because the governing left-wing Self-Determination Movement, or Vetevendosje! — led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti — refuses to accept that the new parliament’s deputy speaker be a member of the Serb ethnic minority, from the Srpska Lista, or Serb List, party.
Kurti’s side has said it rejects the Serb party and its candidates because of its close ties to Belgrade, neighboring Serbia’s capital, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, accusing them of creating illegal parallel governing structures in Kosovo’s north, where most of the ethnic Serbs live.
The U.S. Embassy in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, said in a statement Friday that Washington decided on an indefinite suspension of “its planned strategic dialogue” with Kosovo because of concerns over the caretaker government’s actions.
These actions, the embassy said, have constrained the “ability of the United States to work productively with Kosovo on joint priorities.”
