The leaders of Kosovo and Serbia have pledged to work together to locate people who disappeared during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who mediated talks on May 2 in Brussels between Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, welcomed the agreement.
According to the European Union, 1,621 people remain missing from the war that left more than 13,000 people dead. The majority of those killed and still missing are ethnic Albanians.
"More than 20 years after, their families continue to live in grief, unaware of the whereabouts of their loved ones," Borrell said in a statement. "Families have the right to know the fate of their relatives, as does society at large."
He said that resolving the issue was not only a humanitarian obligation but also a "crucial enabler for reconciliation and trust between people."
Borrell added that it had become urgent to ensure that the process of identifying the burial sites is completed as soon as possible.
"Memories are fading and individuals, places, and events are more difficult to investigate," he said in the statement.
The two sides committed to agree on the operational details at the next meeting as part of the dialogue on the normalization of relations at the level of the main negotiators.
The meeting on May 2 was the first between Kurti and Vucic since their March 18 meeting in Ohrid, North Macedonia, where they reached agreement on ways to implement an EU-backed deal on the path to the normalization.
Under the declaration, the parties will cooperate closely on the identification of grave sites and will ensure full access to reliable and accurate information that helps in locating and identifying missing persons from the time frame from January 1, 1998, to December 31, 2000.
The operational details of the declaration will be agreed upon at the next meeting of the EU-mediated dialogue on the normalization of relations in Brussels.
