On September 4, 2020, the then-Prime Minister of Kosovo, Avdullah Hoti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, signed an agreement on economic normalization at the White House, in the presence of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The signed document, which included the establishment of diplomatic relations, was prepared in four versions: Albanian, English, Hebrew, and Serbian.
As a result of this agreement, Israel and Kosovo exchanged mutual recognition, and on March 14, 2021, Kosovo opened its embassy in Jerusalem.
The flags of Kosovo and Israel were placed side by side at the Embassy of Kosovo in Jerusalem.
Within the commitments signed in Washington, Kosovo agreed to observe a one-year moratorium, during which it would not apply for membership in international organizations.
The agreement also required Serbia to suspend its initiative of lobbying countries around the world to withdraw their recognition of Kosovo’s independence.
Below are the key points of the agreement signed by both Kosovo and Serbia:
- Both parties to implement the Belgrade-Pristina highway agreement signed on February 14, 2020.
- Both parties to implement the Belgrade-Pristina railway agreement signed on February 14, 2020, and to commit to a feasibility study on linking the Belgrade-Pristina railway infrastructure to a deep-sea port in the Adriatic.
- Kosovo (Pristina) and Serbia (Belgrade) to work with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and EXIM Bank on memoranda of understanding to operationalize:
- The Peace Highway
- The Pristina-Merdare railway link
- The Niš-Pristina railway link
- Financing support for small and medium-sized enterprises
- Additional bilateral projects
- Full international presence in Belgrade of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation
- Both parties to open and operationalize the joint border crossing facility at Merdare.
- Both parties to join the “mini-Schengen zone” announced by Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia in October 2019, and to fully benefit from it.
- Both parties to recognize each other’s diplomas and professional certificates.
- Both parties to work with the U.S. Department of Energy and other U.S. government entities on a feasibility study for the joint use of the Ujman Lake, as a secure source of water and energy.
- Both parties to diversify their energy sources.
- Both parties to prohibit the use of 5G equipment from untrusted vendors in their communications networks, and to remove any such existing equipment.
- Both parties to enhance air passenger screening, share information between each other and with U.S. frameworks in the Balkans, and commit to U.S.-secured systems for monitoring and information, including PISCES, APIS, ATS-G, and SRTP.
- Both parties to protect and promote religious freedoms, including restarting interfaith communication, protecting religious sites, enforcing judicial decisions related to the Serbian Orthodox Church, returning Holocaust-era heirless property, and unclaimed Jewish property.
- Both parties to accelerate efforts to locate and identify the remains of missing persons, implement lasting solutions for refugees and internally displaced persons, appoint contact points in their respective ministries, coordinate efforts between Belgrade and Pristina, and update data on resolved and pending cases annually.
- Both parties to work with the 69 countries where homosexuality is still criminalized, encouraging decriminalization.
- Both parties to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization and fully enforce measures to limit its operations and financial activities within their jurisdictions.
- Kosovo (Pristina) agreed to a one-year moratorium on seeking membership in international organizations.
- Serbia (Belgrade) agreed to a one-year moratorium on its derecognition campaign and to refrain from requesting countries or organizations not to recognize Kosovo as an independent state.
- All withdrawal agreements to take immediate effect.
- Kosovo (Pristina) and Israel to mutually recognize each other.
