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The big German media FAZ: The triangle that aimed at the division of Kosovo is now doing business between Vlora, Belgrade and the USA!
2024-03-18 12:29:30 / POLITIKË
From the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
A possible investment project of Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in Serbia and Albania has sparked lively debates, especially in Belgrade. On Friday, Kushner confirmed the plans to the New York Times, which the paper used as the basis for a comprehensive report on the project. This in turn led to clear reactions from the Serbian government at the weekend.
The "New York Times" reported that in Belgrade it was about the construction of a hotel and a building with "1,500 residential units" and in Albania it was about the construction of luxury resorts on the Mediterranean coast. "We are very excited. "We haven't made these deals yet, so they may not happen, but we've been working hard on them and we're very close," Kushner was quoted as saying by the paper.
Trump's former ambassador to Germany and Balkan representative Richard Grenell also played a role in arranging the deals, according to the report. Trump appointed Grenell as his "special envoy for peace negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia" in 2019. At that time, Grenell built good contacts with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. He does not hide the fact that he has wanted to make money from these relationships since leaving politics: "No one should ever apologize for wanting to make money," Grenell said in an interview in Albania about his plans in the region.
For Rama and Vucic, supporting such desires could be politically useful if Trump becomes president again — especially if he brings Grenell on his team. When Grenell was Trump's envoy for the Balkans, Rama, Vučić and then Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi were on the verge of dividing Kosovo between them for the Kosovo government. According to an agreement planned at the time that was trivialized as a "land exchange", the north of Kosovo would have fallen to Serbia and the south would have returned to Albania.
At that time a dangerous deal was prevented
If an agreement had been reached then, it could have marked the beginning of further dangerous border changes, which were the main cause of the bloody Balkan wars of the 1990s. However, the agreement failed at the time, not only because resistance from Germany and its chancellor Angela Merkel. Good relations with the potential future President of the United States may pave the way for Rama and Vucic to renew their plans at that time.
Domestically, the plans are causing some excitement in Serbia, as the focus of the investment project is the former headquarters of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, which was bombed during NATO's air war against Serbia in 1999. It is the only large building in Belgrade. which was destroyed at that time and is still in ruins today. The Serbian Foreign Ministry and the government building are on the other side of the street, so the ruins with 50,000 square meters of usable space are in a prime location. The building is a listed building, but the designs submitted by Kushner bear little resemblance to the original building.
However, the Serbian government strongly criticized the investment plans promoted by Kushner. Infrastructure Minister Goran Vesić announced over the weekend, apparently in response to the New York Times report, that there were several applicants for the real estate project. However, so far not even a letter of intent has been signed, let alone a binding contract.
Whether this will happen depends on whether we can reach an agreement with potential partners. If we cannot agree, there will be no contract", the Serbian media quoted the minister as saying. On the other hand, pro-government portals have already celebrated the investment project and reported in positive tones, which suggests that the important President Vučić approves of the project. With his consent, any opposition from the office for the protection of monuments would no longer be an obstacle for investors, since the state control authorities in Serbia are only a facade if they do not comply with the presidential will.
A Serbian opposition politician had previously claimed that Vesic had signed a memorandum, or at least been authorized by the government to sign a letter of intent, that an American company called Kushner Realty, registered in Delaware and incorporated in March 2022. , and another company called "Atlantic Incubation Partners" was allowed to develop the Belgrade property. Vesic dismissed this, but also stressed, with the aim of ending the war a quarter of a century ago, that the Serbian government had no plans to wait another 25 years to market the property in a prime location.
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