Serbian leader meets with U.S. vice president

Source: Tanjug

ROME -- President Tomislav Nikolić has said that "the information arriving in Washington did not correspond to the situation in the Belgrade-Priština dialogue".

(Tanjug)

The progress made in the dialogue was not being assessed correctly, he said after his meeting in Rome late on Monday with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden.
"Mr. Biden was not informed about the details of the Resolution the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia recently adopted," Nikolić told Tanjug.

The talks were exceptionally useful, Nikolić also said.

According to him, the U.S. vice president said that he "feels obliged to help resolve this problem because the U.S. recognised the independence of Kosovo and Metohija".

The meeting between Nikolić and Biden was the first meeting between a Serbian president and a U.S. vice president in the past four years, and the talks lasted for around one hour, more than was envisaged in the protocol. Both are in Rome for the inauguration of the new head of the Roman Catholic Church.

“The inauguration of new Pope Francis was an opportunity for me to have several bilateral meetings, including the talks with the U.S. vice president at his invitation as perhaps the most important one, and I believe it became clear that certain information arriving in the U.S. did not correspond to the actual situation in the Belgrade-Priština relations and the level or progress made in the dialogue was not assessed correctly,” Nikolić said.

Nikolić noted that he said during the talks with Biden that many countries recognized Kosovo's independence "as a result of the first recognition which came from the U.S.", but he added that Serbia "has only friends in the world" and that it regards countries and nations according to the degree of their willingness to cooperate with Serbia honestly, openly, despite all the limitations.

“In the future, the administrations of the U.S. and Serbia will maintain more frequent high-level contacts because we all want to solve this problem and ensure a better life for Serbian citizens, including those in Kosovo and Metohija and the Serb community which will get assistance both from Serbia and the EU,” Nikolić said.

Prime Minister Thaçi held a meeting in Rome with the Vice President of the United States of America, Joseph Biden

Prishtina, 18 March 2013

Today, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi held a meeting in Rome with the Vice President of the United States of America, Joseph Biden.

In the meeting, they discussed current political developments in Kosovo and in the region, deepening cooperation between Kosovo and the USA and dialogue on normalizing inter-state relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

 In the meeting with Vice President Biden, Prime Minister Thaçi gave a summary of the work of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo toward strengthening good governance, rule of law and order, sustainable economic development, affirmative respect of community rights and focusing on strengthening regional cooperation, as a fundamental precondition for Kosovo’s integration into the European Union and NATO.

In the meeting, Prime Minister Thaçi praised highly relations between the Republic of Kosovo and the United States of America, and expressed the deep appreciation of the institutions and people of Kosovo for their continuing and wide-ranging support of the American Government and people for Kosovo at all times.