EU to host Serbia-Kosovo talks in Brussels as tension grows

Graffiti of maps of Kosovo and Serbian coat of arms and flag, that reads ‘No surrender’, in the Serb-dominated part of the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, Kosovo (Bojan Slavkovic/AP)

Wartime rivals Serbia and Kosovo are to hold high-level crisis talks on Thursday, which the EU mediators hope will de-escalate growing tension in the Balkans where Russia has been trying to further increase its influence amid the war in Ukraine.

Hopes that the rare face-to-face meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo prime minister Albin Kurti, to be held in Brussels, could produce a major breakthrough are slim.