US suspends talks with Kosovo and blames the caretaker government for rising tensions

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The United States on Friday suspended talks with Kosovo, saying the actions by its caretaker government were to blame for rising tensions and instability in the small Balkan country and the region.

Seven months after parliamentary elections in February, Kosovo still doesn’t have a functioning parliament because the governing left-wing Self-Determination Movement, or Vetevendosje! — led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti — refuses to accept that the new parliament’s deputy speaker be a member of the Serb ethnic minority, from the Srpska Lista, or Serb List, party.

Kurti’s side has said it rejects the Serb party and its candidates because of its close ties to Belgrade, neighboring Serbia’s capital, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, accusing them of creating illegal parallel governing structures in Kosovo’s north, where most of the ethnic Serbs live.

The U.S. Embassy in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, said in a statement Friday that Washington decided on an indefinite suspension of “its planned strategic dialogue” with Kosovo because of concerns over the caretaker government’s actions.

These actions, the embassy said, have constrained the “ability of the United States to work productively with Kosovo on joint priorities.”

Kosovo’s constitution calls for the two deputy speakers to be from the country’s ethnic minorities, including one from the Serb minority. The Srpska Lista party, which won nine out of 10 seats belonging to the minority, has offered a candidate for the deputy speaker but Kurti’s party has not accepted the proposal.

Landlocked Kosovo’s population of 1.6 million has at least 2.3% Serbs, though many Serbs declined to take part in the last census and their number is believed to be higher.

Without a new parliament in place, lawmakers cannot vote in a new government, which is needed not only to run the economy and other services, but also proceed with the 14-year-long normalization talks with Serbia that have stalled over the past months.

Washington is a main ally and key player in Kosovo’s development.

NATO forces in 1999 ousted Serbia’s army and authorities from the then-province Serbian province. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, with most Western nations recognizing its sovereignty, but not Serbia and its allies Russia and China.

Government spokesman Perparim Kryeziu defended the administration’s stance on Facebook, saying that Kosovo’s problem is with Belgrade’s proxies in Kosovo, or as he said, Serbia’s structures in Kosovo, not with Kosovo’s Serbs.

“We never have equalized Serb citizens in Kosovo with Serbia’s illegal and parallel structures in Kosovo,” he said.

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said she regrets the U.S. decision and would continue to work closely with Washington — an effort to show her separate stance from Kurti’s government.

“Our partnership ship with the United States is not only a guarantee for the present, but also the safest compass toward the future,” she said.