US envoy starts Kosovo focused tour in Balkans

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — A senior U.S. envoy has launched a tour of several Balkan nations focused on international efforts to help normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia after weeks of heightened tension. U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet began the trip with a brief stop in North Macedonia on Wednesday and plans to travel on to Kosovo and Serbia. The arrest in Kosovo of a former Serbian police officer triggered protests and road blockades by ethnic Serbs in the north of the country. The United States supports longstanding European Union efforts to mediate the relations between Serbia and Kosovo, a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008. Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state.