The reason for my stay in Washington D.C. is the participation at the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. The U.S. is organizing this Conference for the second time. Representatives from more than 100 countries took part in the event this year, with more than 20 Foreign Ministers in attendance.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke at the conference.
I took the opportunity to point to the difficult position of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian believers in Kosovo and Metohija, and to all crimes committed in Kosovo and Metohija against Christian worshippers and religious sites of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
I also had talks with U.S. senior officials. I spoke with National Security Adviser John Bolton, Assistant Secretary of State Philip Reeker and Senator Ron Johnson.
The topic of all these talks was the situation in the region and the talks were extremely good. It has been reasserted that the position of Serbia concerning the dialogue with Pristina is being highly valued. It was clearly indicated who was responsible for interrupting the dialogue and what was the way forward, meaning that the tariffs must go in order for the dialog to continue. In that context, all talks were very useful and we presented our views once again, i.e. that we stand ready to continue the dialog but do not accept unilateral acts by Pristina, demonstrating that they don't want any compromise.
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton underlined that finding a peaceful and lasting solution to the Kosovo issue figured high on the list of U.S. foreign policy priorities. We expect even greater engagement by the United States in the coming period in order to exert additional pressure to lift tariffs and create conditions for the continuation of the dialog", the Head of Serbian diplomacy said after the meetings in Washington D.C.
