Petkovic: First talk about concrete steps around ZSO, text on missing persons has also been agreed on

Photo: Milena Djordjevic

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and head of Belgrade's negotiating team Petar Petkovic said last night that for the first time in the last few years, the most concrete steps for the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) had been discussed as part of trilateral talks, as well as that the text of the declaration on missing persons was agreed upon.

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After a meeting with the chief negotiator of Pristina, Besnik Bislimi, and the EU's special envoy for dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, he said that the talks were long and difficult, but that the Serbian side showed a constructive approach and respect for everything it committed to with clearly stated red lines, reports Tanjug.

"It is important that we talk because it is a way to preserve peace and the Serb people in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as for normalization of relations because that way we can preserve stability in the Western Balkans. We discussed how to continue the process of implementation and formation of the ZSO, because it is the first obligation agreed in Ohrid, and today, for the first time in the trilateral conversation, we talked about the most concrete steps towards the formation of the ZSO and what the management team should do in accordance with the agreements from 2013 and 2015 and the first step is the presentation of a draft of the statute, which was done by the management within the high-level dialogue," said Petkovic.

He also stressed that the text of the declaration on the missing has been determined and will be adopted at the high-level meeting.

"We took special care of all the wording and did not accept the term 'enforced disappearances', so as not to jeopardize the interests of Serbia," said Petkovic.

According to him, energy was also discussed and he added that talks with KEDS will continue about distribution services, but they also discussed license plates.

"There I pointed out all the violations done by Pristina on that issue, and the agreements from 2021 and 2022. We came out with constructive proposals that Pristina rejected," he said and added that the most important thing is to resolve everything in a peaceful way, because the stopping of ambulances and vehicles is not the solution.

Petkovic concluded that the discussion on that issue was done primarily having the Serb people in Kosovo in mind, and how they might remain safe.

"We also talked about the attacks (against Serbs). In any case, a significant number of issues, we will continue to discuss and that is the only way to move forward," he said.

(Telegraf.rs)