Trump adviser Richard Grenell says Lake Trump idea was originally a joke
Pristina, Kosovo:
In addition to his own golf clubs and hotels, Donald Trump may soon have a lake named after him following proposals to name a disputed Balkan reservoir in his honor.
The lake in question is a 24-kilometer (15-mile) body of water straddling the border of former wartime enemies Serbia and Kosovo, both of which claim ownership and have different names.
A huge banner appeared on the Kosovo side of the reservoir on Thursday with the inscription “Lake Trump”, while another hung above a bridge thanked Trump for “bringing peace” in the wake of recent agreements negotiated by the United States between Kosovo and Serbia.
The struggle for ownership of the lake – called Ujman in Kosovo and Gazivode in Serbia – is one of the many disputes that still haunt neighbors 20 years after their war broke.
After the banners appeared, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Avdullah Hoti, wrote on Twitter that he had “welcomed” the proposal to rename the water body “Lake Trump” in honor of the “historic agreement of economic normalization ”signed at the White House in early September.
The agreements, which analysts said were light on substance despite Trump’s insistence on their “historic” nature, included a commitment to a feasibility study to “share” the lake.
According to Trump adviser Richard Grenell, who led the talks on the accords, the idea of Lake Trump was originally a joke.
“There was this amazing fight over the name, so I said jokingly… well, I’m going to keep calling him Lake Trump,” Grenell said in an interview with an American talk show.
“And the two leaders jumped on it and said – I agree with Lake Trump, let’s call it Lake Trump,” he added.
The Serbian government has yet to comment on the matter.
Three quarters of the reservoir is in Kosovo, the rest in Serbia.
But the dispute isn’t just a name dispute.
The lake is the crucial source of drinking water for more than a third of Kosovo’s 1.8 million inhabitants and a source of cooling for the coal-fired power stations that generate almost all of Kosovo’s electricity.
Serbia, which still does not recognize the independence of its former province, considers the lake to be its property.
Residents of the surrounding area, a northern part of Kosovo where predominantly ethnic Serbs live, did not know who was behind the naming initiative.
“I don’t know who put up the signs and banners,” Srdjan Vulovic, a local mayor, told AFP.
Ordinary people had mixed opinions.
“I can put a sign on a building that says Dragica’s building, but that won’t make it mine, or change its name. There are procedures to rename a lake,” Dragica Jeftic, an official told AFP. retired from Mitrovica.
But Bojan Savic, a student, thought it was “not a bad idea”.
“He echoed around the world and it’s good that we have American support.”
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
