On the eve of the critical meeting at the highest level between the Republic of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, expectations, hopes and fears were high. The CIVIL Media editorial team, in cooperation with its sources and experts who regularly write about the most important issues, events and processes in the country and in the world, has published a series of articles and excellent forecasts and analyzes of the situation.

Ahead of the meeting, a large number of statements were published by representatives of domestic, regional and European analysts, journalists and politicians, including Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, EU Commissioner Josep Borel, national coordinator Marjan Zabrchanec, journalists Željko Shine and Eugene Saracini and many others. Among others, Ljubomir Kostovski’s analysis, Whitening” of the Brussels agreement at Biljaninin Izvori revealed the characteristics of the recognition of a state – implicitly and explicitly, concluding that Serbia has already implicitly recognized Kosovo.

The political analyst and the head of the Balkan Forum, a think-tank organization based in Prishtina, Mr. Astrit Istrefi, was one of the interlocutors of CIVIL Media on the eve of the Vucic-Kurti meeting. He, however, in a video interview in Pristina on March 13, said that no agreement will be signed in Ohrid, but that the meeting is certainly highly important. According to him, “it is important that the two leaders meet, in order to continue the path to implementation”; the meeting in Ohrid is not organized to discuss the Normalization Agreement, but rather the implementation steps. So it was.

A day after the end of the meeting between the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia, with the mediation of the European improvers, we conducted another (online) interview with Mr. Istrefi, in which we asked to comment on the outcome of this event, the Annex for implementation, as well as the perspectives of the process started in 2011. Mr. Istrefi makes an excellent point, saying that leadership, vision and courage are needed for processes to be truly successful.

CIVIL MEDIA: What is your comment on the Implementation Annex agreed at the meeting between Kosovo and Serbia on March 18 in Ohrid?

ASTRIT ISTREFI: The deal reached on 18 March 2023 in Ohrid, North Macedonia, between Serbia and Kosovo on the Implementation Annex to the Agreement of 27 February 2023, is exactly the message that both countries, Europe and the world desperately need in these trying times.

The deal is of utmost importance to reducing the heightened tensions between Kosovo and Serbia.

It sets the conditions to tone down the conflict-generating and zero-sum rhetoric of Serbia’s President Vucic, and of Kosovo’s Prime Minister Kurti, as evidenced in their respective speeches right after the announcement that a deal had been reached.

Further, we hope that by reaching this deal, the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia have finally learned the essential lesson that words, gestures, symbolism, and attitudes matter and bear dire consequences, especially at this crucial geopolitical moment in the world’s history that is shaping our future.

CIVIL MEDIA: Do you see weaknesses of the Agreement and the Annex, and what would they be?

ASTRIT ISTREFI: The Agreement reached on 27 February and Implementation Annex agreed on 18 March have revealed once again a major weakness. It has been proven once again that what both countries and peoples need is not strong leaders like Vucic and Kurti, nor “tyranny of the majority”.

Conflict transformation and lasting peace can only be achieved by visionary and courageous leaders who strike a deal because they want to, not because they have to, or need to.

Ohrid was another example that Vucic and Kurti are no such leaders. They did not reach agreements led by their genuine beliefs, vision, and courage that breaking the cycle of century-long enmities, hatred, and of seeing each-other through the cross-hairs is of paramount importance. According to them, they have been under “immense pressure by the international community”, and they acted so for fear of possible consequences – not for the wisdom or the drive to achieve a long-lasting peace. The only yield of such leaders to their peoples is a lingering conflict that never ends.

CIVIL MEDIA: So, what would be the solution, then?

ASTRIT ISTREFI: The peoples of both Kosovo and Serbia should seek leaders who dare dream like Germany’s Adenauer and France’s de Gaulle, or at least think like North Macedonia’s Zaev.

Xh. Deralla