WORLD NEWS | USAID chief power officer travels to Serbia, Kosovo to ease tensions

WASHINGTON, May 8 (AP) — Samantha Power, the top U.S. international development chief, will travel to Serbia and Kosovo this week to meet with leaders there as U.S. and European leaders struggle to stabilize the two former wartime states. A period of heightened tension in relations between enemies.

Power became the first USAID head to visit Serbia, which maintains close historical and cultural ties with Russia.

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Serbia and Kosovo have been hostile since Kosovo split from Serbia at the end of the Cold War in the 1990s.

Friction between Serbia and Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority and a Serb minority, has rebounded amid general tensions since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

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The power is to meet with the prime ministers and presidents of both countries to encourage both sides to continue on the path of normalization of relations between the two countries and to continue towards joining the European Union.

She “will emphasize USAID’s support for Serbia’s accession to the European Union through our partnership for economic growth and democratic development,” USAID said in a statement.

Powell will be the first senior U.S. government official to visit the region since the EU brokered a meeting of the two government leaders in Brussels last week to encourage them to return to peaceful dialogue.

The EU has spent 12 years facilitating negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Serbia does not recognize its statehood.

Brussels and the United States have frequently intervened to ease tensions between the two capitals, especially over the past year following Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.

When separatist ethnic Albanians revolted against Serbian rule, the Kosovo War broke out, and Serbia responded with brutal repression.

Some 13,000 people died, most of them ethnic Albanians. NATO’s military intervention eventually forced Serbia to withdraw from the territory.

Ball will also meet with members of civil society, business leaders, journalists and others in Serbia and Kosovo, including former Serbian NBA player Vlade Divac and athletes with disabilities. (Associated Press)

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