Trump says Serbia, Kosovo agreed to economic deal

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump said that Serbia and Kosovo had agreed to “economic normalisation,” in what he said was a step towards ending a two-decade old conflict. But the deal fell short of Belgrade recognising its neighbour as an independent nation.
“My administration proposed a new way of bridging the divide by focussing on
job creation and economic growth,” Trump said during a meeting with leaders of the two countries at the White House.
“I think they’re going to have a fantastic relationship,” he added.
But the actual impact of the deal Trump brokered, two months before his re-election contest, is uncertain.
The agreement calls for implementing previous airline, rail, and highway arrangements along, according to White House officials. But they declined to define “economic normalisation.”’ The accord also includes a one-year moratorium on Kosovo’s efforts to seek membership in international organisations and Serbia’s campaign to prevent its recognition, officials said.
A statement released by Trump did not include any details about what the agreement would entail beyond a normalisation of ties between Kosovo and Israel and Serbia’s commitment to opening a commercial office in Jerusalem this month and to move its embassy to Jerusalem next year.
Ric Grenell, the US envoy for Serbia and Kosovo, criticised reporters at a White House briefing on the agreement, suggesting they “might be too young” to understand its importance or that it might be “too complicated” for them to comprehend.
But Grenell also struggled to detail what the pact had substantively changed, encouraging reporters to read it and claiming, incorrectly, that it had been released. After prompting from National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, Grenell pointed out that the deal did call for the two countries to mutually recognise diplomas and professional certificates.
Asked for the full text of the agreement, the White House declined to provide it. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in an interview after a meeting with Trump that he had signed a “bilateral agreement” with the American president, not an agreement that includes Kosovo.
The Balkans dispute has
endured since the two sides fought a war beginning in
1998 and Kosovo declared independence from Serbia a decade later.