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By Giulia Miraglia

U.S. President Donald Trump held a trilateral meeting with leaders of Serbia and Kosovo in the Oval Office on September the 4th. “I am pleased to announce a truly historic commitment, Serbia and Kosovo have each committed to economic normalization” Trump said in the press conference with Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbia's president Aleksandar Vučić. The provisions on the document signed separately by the two Balkan countries, covered issues on economic normalization as job creation and economic growth. Trump also said that Serbia has committed to moving its embassy to Jerusalem.

Initially, analysts in Kosovo saw the involvement of the Trump administration in the Balkans as a move toward an election campaign in November. Then, Kosovar cheered Kosovo recognition made by Israel, establishing diplomatic relations. The Trump administration encouraged other countries to follow Kosovo and Serbia. However, many states recognized Kosovo’s independence in 2008, but Serbia, China, India and Russia have not.

KOSOVO’S PATH TO INDEPENDENCE

• 1945 - Serbia, the largest republic of the Communist Yugoslavia federation, included Kosovo as a province.

• 1975 - Kosovo acquired wide autonomy and self-governing authority due to a new constitution.

• 1989 - Slobodan Milosevic came to power in Serbia and started to scrap the autonomy of Kosovo.

• 1990 - On July the 2nd, the provincial parliament of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. However, Belgrade dissolved the autonomous assembly of Kosovo.

• 1998 - The separatist guerrilla of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA or UCK) composed of extremists among Kosovo Albanians launched attacks on Serb police. Milosevic’s apparatus started the war.

• 1999 - After talks failed to reach a peaceful solution, on March 24 NATO started an aerial bombing campaign against Yugoslavia to stop the bloodshed. Then the peacekeeping mission started under UNSC resolution 1244.  The Kosovo Force (KFOR), a NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, was established. 

• 2001- First election in the Kosovo Assembly and the election of Ibrahim Rugova as the President.

• 2004 – Kosovo-wide riots by Albanians left 19 dead and hundreds injured. Belgrade used this violent incident against Kosovo’s recognition of independence.

• 2007 – Failure of a negotiated solution to Kosovo’s future status. The failure led to a unilateral declaration of independence by Pristina with the support of the U.S and other EU states.

• 2008 – On February the 17th, Kosovo declared independence.

WHITE HOUSE INTERESTS ON SERBIA-KOSOVO RELATIONS 

Since independence, the U.S. continues to support a democratic Kosovo integrated into the international community. U.S interests are primarily focused on regional stability, normalization of relations with Serbia and encouraging economic growth.

In 2016, Kosovo made its entrance to a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU, and the United States continued to bear the Euro-Atlantic integration of Kosovo. In August 2016, the U.S. vice-president Joseph Biden visited Kosovo marking the 35-kilometers highway that the country renamed as his late son “Beau”. Kosovar affinity to the U.S. goes beyond this. Streets in Pristina paid tribute to former presidents and officials due to Washington's support of Kosovo’s independence in 2008.  

Since the new U.S. presidency in 2016, Donald Trump took a more transactional approach framing alliances in an economic and business framework and departed from decades of US foreign policy. He criticized NATO to be old-fashioned and he said that America could no longer provide protection to NATO members and Asian nations.

In September 2019, President Trump appointed Richard Grenell as special envoy for peace negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia. In the last year, Grenell has become the core point of US foreign policy. In 2018, Serbia threatened to block Kosovo from joining international organizations such as Interpol and, as a consequence, Kosovo imposed a 100 percent custom duty on Serbian and Bosnian goods. Grenell strongly opposed Kosovo threatening that the US might have withdrawn American troops. In February 2020, the Kosovar government announced to partly lift the tariff for April, described by the intelligence chief Grenell as “half measure”.

The “historic deal” hailed on September the 4th seemed to have the purpose of a re-election campaign event. Trump sold it as a great day for peace in the Middle East saying on twitter “Muslim-majority Kosovo and Israel have agreed to normalize ties and establish diplomatic relations”. The intended audience could be the Jewish community in Florida and Pennsylvania and Albanian community in Michigan. Trump promoted his political goals but did not provide the means for a more stable and democratic Kosovo.

A similar pattern has been followed by Joe Biden. He published letters supporting Bosnian Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania seeking voters to defeat D. Trump. Biden has been part of US intervention in Ex-Yugoslavia to stop Milosevic’s campaign of genocide, the massacre of more than 100,000 people by 1995.

He was also involved in the intervention for ending the Kosovo war in 1999 and always supported cooperation with the EU to achieve mutual recognition agreement. Biden’s vision for US-Kosovo relations will likely change Trump's imbalanced vision: for the former Vice-President Biden, Kosovo’s independence is an irreversible process.

After the US Presidential election’s outcome was announced on November 7th, high expectations were raised for the Biden Presidency. A great sense of relief has been heard among overseas countries and the NATO Alliance previously threatened by Trump. It is fair to expect a more gradual and democratic approach to the Kosovo-Serbia issue fully in line with European plans and goals, but the world will have to wait to know details in the months to come. 

Giulia is a political writer for La Tonique. You can follow Giulia on Twitter ⁦@gm_miraglia⁩.