NATO urges Serbia and Kosovo to reduce tensions and recalls that its mission is ready to intervene

BRUSSELS, Aug. 17 (EUROPA PRESS) -

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday urged Serbia and Kosovo to reduce tensions and avoid an escalation after the violence recorded in northern Kosovo at the end of July due to border blockades and recalled that his KFOR mission is ready to intervene, even deploying to guarantee stability in the area.

At a press conference after meeting with the Serbian president, Aleksander Vucic, the political chief of NATO has asked the parties to be responsible and to show moderation in the area, after indicating that if instability is put at risk, NATO is ready to " take any measure to secure the environment and guarantee the movement of all communities in Kosovo".

The former Norwegian prime minister has stressed that NATO is a "neutral actor" in the area and the purpose of KFOR is to guarantee the security of all communities, "including the Serbs." "We are not going to do anything that implicates us in the conflict," he asserted.

Of course, he has warned that the Atlantic Alliance is prepared to intervene if that situation were to come about. "If necessary, we will move force, we will increase our presence. We have already increased our presence in the north and we will act if necessary, always in a proportionate manner," he indicated, stressing that the objective is to reduce tensions and guarantee the security of all communities.

In any case, Stoltenberg has exposed the "significant" presence of NATO in Kosovo, where it has a force of almost 4,000 troops. "The presence in itself already serves to stabilize and avoid an escalation or any type of conflict", he has riveted.

A few weeks ago, tensions arose over the blockades of border crossings by the Serbian community in protest at the application of a law --already postponed for a month-- by which people from Serbia who entered Kosovo had to hand over their identity documents identity, which would be replaced by others issued in Pristina.

The meeting with Stoltenberg at NATO headquarters, which will later be seen with the Kosovar Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, comes on the eve of the dialogue in Brussels sponsored by the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, who will seek to channel the situation and that Belgrade and Pristina commit to talks.

On the same, the highest political official of NATO has defended that dialogue is the way to resolve differences in the region and that it is the platform to find solutions that respect all communities in Serbia and Kosovo.

In this sense, he has asked both leaders to attend the talks with a "constructive" air, "show flexibility" and "participate in good faith", to which Vucic has replied that the negotiations are "difficult" because Serbs and Kosovars do not they agree "on practically nothing".

In any case, the Serbian president has marked the path of dialogue and reaching compromises as the way forward, after rejecting Pristina's accusations of being under Russian influence and representing a threat to the region in the context of the war in Ukraine.

"What we need is dialogue, negotiation, compromises and not blackmail against Serbia, about how it has to act or what it has to recognize," said Vucic, who regretted that the situation in Ukraine is being used to attack Belgrade.

Serbia, a historical ally of Moscow, is the only country in the Balkans that has not aligned itself with European sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine, although the country has denounced the Russian military attack in the United Nations votes.