Serbian FM visits Kosovo first time since 1999 war

PRISTINA - Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic Wednesday visited Pristina, capital of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo, marking the first visit to Kosovo by a Serbian official since the 1999 war.

Dacic attended the 'Western Balkan 6' conference, hosted by Kosovar Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci, together with foreign ministers of Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"This conference shows a relaxed relationship in the Balkans," Dacic told journalists after the conference, stressing that the occurrence of such a meeting relied on relaxed relations and the improved movement of people, goods and capital in the region.

The Serbian minister's first visit to Pristina was commended by Thaci.

"It's a new commitment for a European Kosovo, a European Serbia, and a European region. It's an added message for a full normalization of relations between us," said Thaci.

Thaci and Dacic have been involved in the EU-facilitated dialogue for the normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations.

Thaci underlined that Dacic's visit to Pristina is a contribution to the implementation of the Brussels Agreement reached by prime ministers of the two countries on April 2013.

European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn also attended the conference. He said that as a first step, up to 130 million euros (about 143 million U.S. dollars) will be available this year for infrastructure and transport projects in the Western Balkan as part of the Instrument of Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) II, an EU instrument for supporting reforms in the 'enlargement countries' for the period of 2014-2020.

Hahn stressed that the EU is ready to commit as much as 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in total to improving the connectivity within this region and between the region and the European Union by the end of 2020.