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Added on the 01/08/2022 15:21:11 - Copyright : France 24 EN
Kosovo and Serbia's leaders visit Brussels for talks with their European counterparts on calming tensions, with Aleksandar Vucic, president of Serbia, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti arriving for a meeting with European Council President Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The talks come just days after an European Union envoy, as well as diplomats from the United States, France, Germany and Italy visited both Belgrade and Pristina, for top-level talks over the issue. IMAGES
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urges the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia to "immediately and unconditionally" de-escalate tensions, after clashes in northern Kosovo left 30 soldiers from a NATO-led peacekeeping force injured. SOUNDBITE
EU-mediated "crisis management" talks between Serbia and Kosovo fail to quell rising tensions by having the sides "come to an agreement", but further dialogue will be held in the coming days as these talks are "not the end of the story", according to the bloc's diplomatic chief Josep Borrell. SOUNDBITE
The Paris demonstration for women's rights and gender equality is marred by jostling between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel activists. IMAGES
NATO forces cross the Vistula River at Korzeniewo in Poland as part of the US-led defence alliance's Exercise Dragon 24, involving around 4,500 soldiers and almost 1,000 vehicles. Dragon 24 is itself part of Exercise Steadfast Defender 24, NATO's largest military exercise since the Cold War, which is designed to test its defences in the face of Russia's war on Ukraine. IMAGES
Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti says in an interview with AFP he hopes to normalise relations with the country's arch-rival Serbia this year, following several rounds of failed talks between the two sides. "Normalisation of relations with Serbia I wish for this year, for 2024, and in the next years and decades I want to come out victorious on issues like social inequality, climate change and security threats," Kurti tells AFP. SOUNDBITE