No doubt we have US backing for lifting of Pristina's tax: Vucic reveals details of Pompeo meeting

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York on Tuesday. The meeting lasted almost two hours. Vucic said afterwards that Mike Pompeo wanted to hear what Serbia thinks, above all, about solving the Kosovo problem.

"I said, it seems to me in the briefest possible way, what the position of Serbia is," said President Vucic.

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He said he asked the US administration to try, even though it has done it so far, to even more strongly influence the Kosovo-Metohija Albanians to abolish their taxes imposed on Serbian goods almost a year ago.

"There is no doubt that we have America's support in this regard, because they also think that it's important to continue the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, so that we can preserve peace in every way and at any cost, look to the future and improve our economy," stressed President Vucic.

That, he said, was the main part of the meeting.

Photo: Serbian Presidency

"I also spoke about the importance of protecting our holy sites in Kosovo, especially given the recent cases that are happening in Kosovo," emphasized Vucic. He also said that Serbia is ready, regardless of the fact that this doesn't bring political points to the authorities in central Serbia, to enter into open political dialogue with the Albanians as soon as the taxes have been abolished.

"It doesn't matter, the political price you have to pay, because people in our country don't like to listen to things that have to do with reality, but with myths. The future of the region depends on our relations as the two largest nations in the Western Balkans. As soon as we find an agreement, we will secure the future for people," said Vucic.

"I am pleased with the fact that it seems to me that what I said has caused the attention of Secretary Pompeo, and I believe that America will want to be involved in different ways in solving problems in our region even more strongly," said Vucic.

Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter that he had a "productive lunch" with the Serbian president, during which they discussed the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, as well as Serbia's European integration.

"Normalization of relations with Kosovo will strengthen the stability and progress of Serbia, the Western Balkans and the trans-Atlantic community," Pompeo wrote.

(Telegraf.rs/RTS)