Pres says Serbia faces international isolation over Kosovo

By JOVANA GEC
Associated Press

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s president says that his country would face a halt in European Union integration and economic and political isolation if it rejects a new Western plan for normalizing relations with Kosovo. Serbia received the warning from a visiting group of U.S. and European envoys, part of stepped up Western efforts to defuse tensions in the volatile Balkan region amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The dispute between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo remains a source of instability in the Balkans long after a NATO intervention forced Serbia to pull out of the territory. Vucic now says that “Serbia must talk, take part in dialogue and continue its European road.”