Kosovo PM calls on West not to put pressure over Serb entity

By LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti has called on Western powers not to pressure his tiny Balkan country into accepting a contentious association of five Serb-majority municipalities that is ramping up tensions between Kosovo and Serbia. Kurti told The Associated Press that the focus instead should be on making Serbia more democratic and getting rid of what he called Belgrade’s hopes of regional leadership. Kurti said in the interview on Sunday that the Serbian government should acknowledge Kosovo’s independence in order to “face the past.” He stressed that Belgrade should lean more toward the European Union and NATO and not Russia.