[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 158 (Monday, September 14, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E839]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SUCCESS FOR SERBIA AND KOSOVO

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOE WILSON

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 14, 2020

  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, earlier this month, 
President Donald J. Trump presided over the greatest diplomatic 
breakthrough in the Western Balkans in the last two decades. Indeed, 
for over twenty years, the potential of the Western Balkans region has 
been paralyzed due to the intractable conflict between the Republic of 
Serbia and the Republic of Kosovo. This bloody conflict took the lives 
of over 13,000 people and precipitated NATO intervention and 
bombardment at the turn of the 21st century.
  For over twenty years, a perpetual state of tension and distrust 
existed between Belgrade and Pristina. Ultimately, those that suffered 
most are Serbian and Kosovar families. I am grateful that under 
President Trump's leadership we have witnessed the first glimmers of 
hope and progress that will benefit Europe as a whole. On September 4, 
2020, President Trump announced that the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo 
has agreed to enter into an agreement normalizing economic relations 
between the two nations. Serbain President Aleksander Vucic and Kosovo 
Prime Minister Avdullah Hofi are courageous for peace and prosperity. 
President Trump is exactly right to say, ``Economies can bring people 
together.'' Mutual economic prosperity incentivized the creation of the 
European Union itself. By focusing on economic benefits and commercial 
ties first, these two erstwhile enemies can put aside thorny policy 
debates that have gotten them nowhere for decades and instead see the 
immediate dividends of peace. When both sides can prosper, 
unprecedented progress can be made on complicated issues. The 
ramifications of this agreement will reverberate far into the future 
and will reshape the course of history of the Western Balkans.
  Additionally, both Serbia and Kosovo also pledged to remove 5G 
equipment provided by untrusted vendors--namely China--from their 
mobile vendors and to prohibit all future bidding by such vendors. This 
is also marks a major achievement in the Trump Administration's foreign 
policy agenda to counter malign Chinese Communist Party influence 
around the world.
  This historic milestone comes amid a litany of Trump Administration 
foreign policy successes--including successful peace agreements 
brokered between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of 
Bahrain. Notably, on the day of the Serbia-Kosovo announcement, the 
White House also mentioned that Kosovo and Israel had agreed to 
normalize ties and establish diplomatic relations, and that Serbia had 
agreed to move its embassy to Jerusalem by July.
  Time and again, President Trump is proving to the world that real 
success can be achieved by implementing American leadership based on 
President Ronald Reagan's maxim of Peace through Strength.

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