PRISTINA, Kosovo — The European Union’s special envoy for talks between Serbia and Kosovo started a visit to Pristina on Monday for meetings with local leaders on resuming dialogue between the two countries.
Miroslav Lajcak arrived in Kosovo’s capital, where he will meet top leaders during his three-day visit.
Lajcak was due to meet with Albin Kurti, who is expected to become Kosovo’s new prime minister after his Self-Determination Movement Party won the Feb. 14 parliamentary election.
After a White House summit and talks in Brussels in September, the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo has stalled.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a decade after a brutal 1998-1999 war between separatist ethnic Albanian rebels and Serb forces. Most Western nations have recognized Kosovo’s independence, but Serbia and its allies Russia and China have not.
The war ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign drove Serb troops out and a peacekeeping force moved in.
Brussels named Lajcak to the post last year to help Kosovo-Serbia relations, which remain tense despite the ongoing EU-led negotiations on normalizing their ties.
Lajcak will then go to Belgrade after departing from Kosovo.
