The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo meet on August 18 in Brussels

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti will travel to Brussels on August 18 at the invitation of European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borrell to discuss ways to calm their relations, Borrell's spokesman announced Friday.

“Joseph Borrell has invited both parties to Brussels. President Vucic and Prime Minister Kurti have accepted his invitation and on August 18 they will meet High Representative and EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajac to discuss the way forward in the framework of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue,” said Peter Stano.

Pristina's decision to impose temporary residence permits on people entering Kosovo with a Serbian identity card and to compel Kosovo Serbs to replace their car registration plates with those of the Republic of Kosovo led to violence.

The Pristina authorities, under pressure from Western powers, especially the United States, the ally of Kosovo, decided to postpone for a month until September, the entry into force of the new rules at the border with Serbia.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke to the two leaders and warned them that the NATO force was "ready to intervene if stability is threatened" due to unrest at the border with Serbia.

The NATO force in Kosovo includes 3,775 soldiers from 28 countries.

Its mission is to "provide a safe environment and guarantee freedom of movement for the benefit of all components of the people of Kosovo".

Belgrade has never recognized the independence that Kosovo declared in 2008 after a decade of bloody war that left 13,000 people dead, most of them Kosovar Albanians.

Since then, the region has witnessed unrest from time to time.

Five EU member states have not recognized Kosovo's independence, including Spain, due to separatist aspirations in Catalonia and the Basque Country.

Serbia and Kosovo are looking forward to joining the European Union.

Serbia has been granted candidate status and has been in negotiations since 2014, while Kosovo is a "potential candidate".

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