Meeting on restoring railway traffic between Belgrade and Pristina ends

Based on an agreement between US President's Special Envoy Richard Grenell and Serbian President Alkesandar Vucic, a meeting was held today in Berlin to discuss renewing rail passenger and cargo traffic between Belgrade and Pristina, which has been interrupted for more than two decades. According to Tanjug, Serbia's delegation was led by Marko Djuric.

The Serbian delegation also consisted of representatives of the relevant ministry and experts in the field of railway transport, while the Pristina side, as stated by the Albanian media, was represented by Xhema Veseli, in charge of road administration in the provisional administration, and Rama Kupeva, in charge of road infrastructure.

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According to Tanjug's source, the meeting in Berlin discussed only commercial issues, as Belgrade's condition for the continuation of political dialogue, which will continue to be conducted under the auspices of the EU, is the abolition of 100 percent taxes on goods from central Serbia and BiH, introduced by Pristina.

Photo: Tanjug/ANDRIJA VUKELIC

Belgrade-Pristina infrastructure connections was one of the main topics of talks between Vucic and Grenell in Belgrade on Friday, when the US diplomats announced that details about an agreement to restore rail services would be discussed at a meeting in Berlin on Monday.

Grenell noted that the US wants the two sides to focus on the economy, jobs and prosperity as a path toward normalizing relations.

In a statement for US agency AP, Grenell, who is also the US ambassador to Germany, said an agreement to restore rail traffic between Belgrade and Pristina would be important for both sides.

Establishing the rail link, he said, became a priority after US officials mediated last week in reaching an agreement to reestablish air traffic between Belgrade and Pristina after 21 years.

President Vucic told reporters after the meeting with Grenell that he had indicated to him the importance of abolishing taxes, since it's pointless to have a rail line between Belgrade and Pristina without any goods being transpored on it.

(Telegraf Biznis/Tanjug)