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Plans by Jared Kushner and his business partners to redevelop a prized site in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, stemmed from Donald J. Trump’s interest in pursuing a deal for the site a decade ago and during his tenure in the White House. It resonates with similar proposals advanced by top executives. Aides are currently working with Mr. Kushner, according to a review of the project.
A tentative agreement between Kushner’s team and the Serbian government gives his investment company a 99-year free lease and the right to build a luxury hotel, apartment complex and museum on the site of its former headquarters in Serbia. It has become. Yugoslav Ministry of Defense in Belgrade bombed by NATO in 1999. A draft outline of the agreement was provided to The New York Times by Serbian officials.
In 2013, two years before he ran for president, Mr. Kushner’s father-in-law, Mr. Trump, told Serbian government officials that he wanted to build a luxury hotel on the property. Officials from the Trump Organization traveled to Belgrade to inspect the site. The project was not finalized before Trump’s election in 2016, and Trump vowed no new foreign deals after he took office.
However, the site’s development is likely to once again draw attention from those around Mr. Trump.
Richard Grenell, who Trump appointed as special envoy to the Balkans, pushed forward with a related Trump-era plan for Serbia and the U.S. to work together on rebuilding the Pentagon site. While still serving as a U.S. diplomat in 2020, he is in favor of using U.S. investment to renovate the Belgrade site, according to transcripts and statements made at several government press conferences. he claimed.
Mr. Kushner said in an interview Sunday that he had never discussed the Belgrade project with Mr. Trump and was unaware of his father-in-law’s prior interest in redeveloping the site.
“I had no idea that my father-in-law had any interest in that area, and I doubt he was aware of this agreement that we were working on,” Kushner said.
Representatives for Mr. Trump did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Mr. Kushner’s current efforts or Mr. Trump’s previous interest in developing Belgrade.
Grenell also said he was unaware of Trump’s interest in the site before he took office. But he is now working with Mr. Kushner on a new development deal, and Mr. Kushner said he was a key force in getting the company to consider investing in Belgrade.
Grenell served as a special envoy during the last two years of the Trump administration, helping facilitate economic settlement negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo, two neighboring countries that have had tense relations since the end of the Bosnian war in 1995.
The connection between Mr. Grenell’s role in pushing for Belgrade’s redevelopment both inside and outside of government and Mr. Kushner’s tentative agreement to carry out proposals for personal gain is that his public role and private It raises new questions about conflicts of interest between roles. Foreign governments are watching closely as Trump seeks the presidency again.
Kushner confirmed Friday that his investment firm is pursuing deals in Serbia and a luxury real estate project in Albania, and said he expected to finalize an agreement soon.
The overlap between official actions taken by Mr. Kushner and Mr. Grenell while in government and business deals they pursue in the regions where they worked suggests that Mr. Kushner and Mr. Grenell’s deals in the Middle East with former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin overlap. Reminiscent. After leaving the company.
Both Mr. Mnuchin and Mr. Kushner have been active in Middle East diplomacy, and after the Trump administration left office, they each set up investment companies that secured billions of dollars from the Saudi government and hundreds of millions of dollars from other Middle Eastern countries.
Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in government ethics, said the Kushner project in Serbia would pose a conflict of interest if Trump were re-elected, even if it were not a long-term effort. Stated. Allow family members to access the site.
“There are concerns that the Serbian government may try to influence a future President Trump by enriching the president’s family,” she said. “Foreign policy toward Serbia should be influenced by U.S. interests, not economic favors from the Serbian government.”
Serbian government officials said Grenell’s proposal to reconsider rebuilding the bombed former military headquarters site in 2020 came after Trump welcomed Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to the White House. It was right after. During the visit, Mr. Vučić praised the progress made by Mr. Grenell in normalizing economic relations between Serbia and Kosovo.
Trump also praised Grenell at the ceremony, who said the progress between the two countries was a clear accomplishment for Trump and could lead to a political breakthrough. Kushner was a senior White House adviser to Trump at the time.
“What President Trump said from the beginning was, ‘Let’s give you a little taste of the Trump economy,'” Grenell said, according to a transcript of the event. “Let’s teach them how to develop the economy, how to bring in industry and grow it.”
Grenell, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Germany in 2018 and 2019, has said he wants to become secretary of state in Trump’s second term, and is looking to expand his portfolio and score a high-profile victory. I strove. his boss. Although his acerbic diplomatic style had alienated senior German government officials, he had begun to forge other relationships across Europe, including with Vučić.
While Grenell was ambassador to Germany, he pitched to Trump the idea of appointing him to mediate the long-running conflict between Serbia and Kosovo, two former Trump administration officials said.
Twenty-five years ago, U.S.-led NATO forces intervened militarily to protect Kosovo’s Muslims from ethnic cleansing by the Serbian government. The former Yugoslav military headquarters in central Belgrade, which was little used at the time, was one of the targets. Since then, the site has been left in a state of disrepair and is seen by Serbs as a symbol of their suffering during the NATO attack.
In 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia, but Serbia does not officially recognize Kosovo as a sovereign country.
In October 2019, Trump appointed Grenell as the “Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia-Kosovo Peace Negotiations.”
The State Department already had teams working on these issues, and Mr. Grenell had relatively little experience in the Balkans.
Grenell was widely seen among European diplomats as favoring Serbia in the negotiations, and was warmly received in Belgrade. Trump has put immense pressure on Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti to lift tariffs on Serbian goods, and Trump’s prominent allies have begun publicly calling for the withdrawal of U.S. peacekeepers from Kosovo. Ta. Mr. Grenell had one important ally in Kosovo. That was then-president Hashim Thaci, who was later indicted for war crimes.
Grenell rejected any suggestion that he was the favorite to win. He said he was ultimately praised by the leaders of both countries – Serbia’s Vučić and Kosovo’s Thaçi – for helping broker an economic normalization deal.
But he acknowledged that progress had been made under Mr. Trump, particularly in strengthening economic ties between the United States and Serbia.
“I’ve developed a lot of love for moving the Serbian-American relationship forward,” Grenell said in an interview with The Times on Sunday.
While Grenell was a special envoy to the Balkans, he befriended senior Serbian officials, including Vučić and Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mari, but Belgrade officials believe they played no role in the preliminary approval of the Kushner hotel deal. He said he accomplished it. Mali did not respond to requests for comment.
Grenell posted a video of himself singing with Mari inside a packed Belgrade club in 2021, surrounded by people dancing to pulsating music, waving Serbian flags and holding sparklers and torches. posted on his Instagram page.
Mr. Grenell returned to Serbia and neighboring Albania shortly after Mr. Trump left the White House and began pushing for development projects, including the Belgrade accord, which were subsequently adopted by Mr. Kushner’s company.
A draft agreement provided to the Times by Serbian government officials also spells out an option to formally transfer ownership of the property to Mr. Kushner’s partnership, free of charge, after construction of the hotel complex and luxury residential units.
In an interview, Mr. Kushner did not dispute the veracity of the documents obtained by the Times. He said the parties had tentatively agreed to give the Serbian government 22% of the profits generated by the approximately $500 million project.
Kushner’s company, Affinity Partners, said in a statement that the Belgrade site will be “transformed into a world-class luxury hotel,” but will also include a museum and monument designed by a Serbian architect to pay homage to the site’s significance. said. In recent Serbian history.
Kushner said Grenell encouraged him to move forward with the project.
“Rick is a strong supporter of investment in the Balkans and has been trying to get us to invest in this project ever since I started the fund,” Kushner said, adding that U.S. companies would rebuild sites bombed by NATO. He mentioned that it was planned.
Representatives of the Serbian government did not immediately respond to questions or multiple requests for comment.
Danijela Nestrovic, an opposition lawmaker in Serbia’s parliament, and other members of her party condemned the Kushner deal in a statement to the Times, saying the building was attacked and several people were killed during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) offensive. He said there were 40 people killed and 40 injured. .
“The General Staff building is a monument to us,” she said in a statement, referring to the bombed military headquarters. “It evokes deep, hidden emotions in the victims of NATO bombing. To build a hotel there would be a mockery of the Serbian people.”
Grenell said in an interview that the agreement with Kushner is an opportunity to “transform a symbol of past conflict into a bridge of friendship and renewal” and “symbolizes the tremendous progress that has been made to heal the wounds of conflict.” ” he said. past. “
In 2020, when Grenell urged Serbian authorities to consider working with US investors to redevelop the Belgrade site, Ivica Dačić, who by then was serving as the Serbian government’s foreign minister. He recalled visiting Trump Tower in New City. It was then that Trump first discussed plans for a hotel at the former Defense Headquarters site.
“I don’t think he’s forgotten that desire,” Dacic said of Trump at a 2020 press conference.
The proposed project in Serbia is just one of three deals that Mr. Kushner and Mr. Grenell are trying to develop in the Balkans.
Kushner said Friday that no final deal has been signed, but negotiations are well advanced and he expects a final deal to be signed. He disputed any suggestion that his company was receiving special treatment.
He also said he was aware of the high-profile nature of his position — he is married to Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka, and has played a prominent role in Trump’s White House. –He also stated that he had no choice but to be careful to act within the legal limits. and ethical boundaries.
“Everything has to be completely out of the box,” he said.
Ben Protess Contributed to the report.
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