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NATO soldiers in Kosovo
Photo:
ARMEND NIMANI / AFP
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is calling on Kosovo and Serbia to de-escalate the conflict between the two Balkan states.
"I call on all sides to exercise restraint and avoid violence," he said at a press conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in Brussels.
Although the situation on the ground has improved, it is primarily the responsibility of Belgrade and Pristina to prevent a renewed escalation.
However, Stoltenberg also made it clear that the NATO KFOR mission was ready to intervene at any time if stability was threatened.
The security force stationed in Kosovo since 1999 includes almost 4,000 soldiers.
Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo escalated again about two weeks ago.
The reason for this was the new entry rules for Serbs that Kosovo wanted to introduce.
Due to pressure from the USA and the EU, the introduction was postponed by a month.
The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Vučić and the Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti have invited to mediation talks this Thursday.
Stoltenberg said he encourages all sides to be flexible and constructive.
However, Vučić indicated that he was expecting difficult talks: "We agree on almost nothing." At the same time, Vučić rejected the accusation that Serbia was intervening in northern Kosovo, which is mostly inhabited by ethnic Serbs: "We did not provoke." Rather, he said presented a list of "provocations" committed by the Kosovar authorities against the Serb minority.
Under the "pretext" of wanting to fight organized crime, Kosovan police officers often take action against Serbs.
Kosovo, which is now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, belonged to Serbia until 1999.
After an armed uprising by the Kosovar Albanians, NATO used air strikes to force the Serbian state to withdraw.
From 1999 to 2008, the UN administration Unmik governed the province.
Serbia does not recognize the independence declared by the Kosovars in 2008.
as/dpa