istina and Pristina-Merdare and to connect the Belgrade-Pristina rail network with a deep seaport on the coast of the Adriatic Sea They will also conduct feasibility study with the U.S. Department of Energy concerning the sharing Gazivoda Lake which straddles the border between the two states. In addition to the economic agreement, Serbia agreed to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv starting in June 2021 and Israel and Kosovo agreed to mutually recognise each other.
September 2020 talks in BrusselsEdit
On 7 September, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti met for talks in Brussels hosted by Josep Borrell under the auspices of the European Union. At a press conference after the talks EU Special Representative for the Serbia-Kosovo Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, stated that "full progress" had been made in the areas of economic cooperation, missing persons and displaced people. Vučić and Hoti will meet again in Brussels on 28 September 2020 where they will discuss arrangements for minority communities, the settlement of mutual financial claims and property and will attempt to make progress towards a more comprehensive agreement.
Since the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, a large portion of Kosovo Serbs have been displaced from their homes, like other minorities throughout the province. A significant portion of Serbian Orthodox churches, as well as Serbian cemeteries and homes, have been demolished or vandalised.
The Serbian Government promised suspended Serb prison workers from Lipljan money if they were to leave the Kosovo institutions, which they were working in, so they did. However they were never paid, so staged a continued a blockade of the Co-ordination Centre in Gračanica. They claim that Belgrade, the Kosovo Ministry specifically, has not paid them money promised for leaving the Kosovo institutions.
Serbs have also responded by forming their own assembly.
In September 2013, the Serb government dismantled the Serb minority assemblies in Mitrovica, Leposavić, Zvecan and Zubin Potok as part of an agreement with the government of Kosovo. At the same time, the President of Kosovo signed a law that granted amnesty to ethnic Serbs in Kosovo for past acts of resistance to Kosovo law enforcement authorities.
Kosovo pays considerable attention to the Albanian minority in Serbia. The Albanian minority in Serbia has voiced support for more rights in line with the rights of Serbs in Kosovo. In 2013, Isa Mustafa, then one of the leaders of opposition in Kosovo, referring to the Brussels Agreement said that "Once the programme for implementing the agreement is finished, Kosovo and Serbia have to open a discussion about the issue of the rights that Albanians who live in Presevo and in Serbia enjoy".
- Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement. Kosovo is currently recognized as an independent state by 98 out of the 193 United Nations member states. In total, 113 UN member states recognized Kosovo at some point, of which 15 later withdrew their recognition.
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- Meares, Richard (18 February 2008). "Serbia charges Kosovo leaders with treason". Reuters. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
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