Serbia’s president said on Saturday that his country stands ready to participate in talks with its breakaway province of Kosovo, but that it would never recognize the new country’s secession.
Serbian President Boris Tadic’s stand does not auger well for the success of negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, which the EU hopes to mediate. Kosovo insists that it will not discuss anything that would alter its status as an independent nation.
Two weeks ago, the UN General Assembly adopted a Serbian resolution calling for talks between the two sides to start.
Under US and EU pressure, Serbia agreed to water down its original draft — which described Kosovo’s secession as “unacceptable” — and replaced it with a new text, which simply acknowledged an international court ruling that Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008 was legal.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has met with both Tadic and Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci on the sidelines of this year’s UN General Assembly to lay the groundwork for the talks.
Thaci reportedly reiterated to Ashton that the talks could only deal with issues between two sovereign states and that Pristina would not agree to discuss its status as an independent country.
In his address to the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Tadic described the resolution as “status neutral” and welcomed the EU’s readiness to facilitate the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo.
However, he noted that Serbia’s position remains unchanged.
“The unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo will not be recognized by Serbia implicitly or explicitly,” Tadic said.
Serbia considers Kosovo the cradle of its statehood and religion.
The upcoming talks are of critical importance to Kosovo. Although 70 UN member states have recognized it as an independent state, it still lacks the support needed to join the UN. Russia and China could use their veto as permanent members of the Security Council to block Kosovo’s membership.
The talks are also vital for Serbia, which is seeking to join the EU. Twenty-two of the bloc’s 27 members already have recognized Kosovo and it is unlikely that Serbia’s candidacy could proceed without a resolution to the dispute.
Kosovo came under UN and NATO administration after a 1999 NATO-led air war halted former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic’s crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists there. However, the Security Council resolution that established the interim UN administration left Kosovo’s final status in question.
Kosovo’s predominantly ethnic Albanian leadership declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, with strong backing from the US and major EU nations. The Serbian government, strongly supported by Russia, insists that Kosovo is still legally bound by the Security Council resolution and the UN — at Moscow’s insistence — still retains overall authority in the nation of 2 million people.
In a related development, Bosnian President Haris Silajdzic criticized the leadership of his country’s Serb entity, saying their intransigence was hindering Bosnia’s progress and destabilizing the Balkans.
“Our collective resolve to prevent the escalation and opening of fresh wounds in Bosnia is being tested again,” Silajdzic told the General Assembly.
Since its 1992-1995 civil war, Bosnia has consisted of two fairly autonomous mini-states — one for Bosnian Serbs and the other shared by Bosnian Muslims and Roman Catholic Croats.
Because of the ethnic and religious divisions, Bosnia barely functions on a federal level, primarily because Bosnian Serbs do not want to transfer any of the powers of their mini-state to the central government. This is a key obstacle standing in the way of Bosnia’s EU membership.
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