Russia on Tuesday tried for the first time to prevent Kosovo’s representative from speaking at the UN Security Council with the country’s flag in the background, saying that the majority of council members do not recognize its independence from Serbia.
The request to ban the flag by Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyansky at the start of a scheduled open council meeting on Kosovo led to a 45-minute suspension of the virtual meeting while the council’s 15 members discussed the issue in private.
“Eight of the 15 members of the Security Council do not recognize Kosovo as a country” and therefore the flag should not appear behind Kosovar Minister of Foreign Affairs Donika Gervalla, Polyansky said.
Russia did not object to Gervalla speaking, he said.
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office legal counsel Chanaka Wickremasinghe said that council video meetings are not formal meetings, and that Kosovo’s flag had appeared behind its representative during the previous meeting.
After the COVID-19 pandemic halted most in-person meetings at UN headquarters in New York City, Russia insisted that any meeting not held in the council’s chamber, including all those held virtually, would be considered informal.
When the meeting resumed, Vietnamese Ambassador to the UN Dang Dinh Quy, the council’s president, said that the backgrounds of virtual meetings should not disrupt council sessions and the flag could stay.
Gervalla was one of three scheduled speakers and when she briefed the council, Kosovo’s blue flag with six white stars above a map in gold of the country was behind her.
Polyansky began his presentation afterward noting “the lack of respect towards the UN Security Council’s decisions from somebody invited in a personal capacity as representative of Kosovo’s Albanians.”
“The Russian Federation and most of the other members of the Security Council do not recognize Kosovo’s independence, and the demonstration of the flag of that non-recognized entity is not acceptable,” he said.
Polyansky said that video meetings of the council are informal and temporary, and the council’s rules of procedure do not fully apply.
“Whatever background Ms Gervalla has chosen for herself, whether these are photos or flags or other things ... that does not have any impact whatsover on this,” he said.
Tensions over Kosovo remain a source of volatility in the Balkans.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a decade after a brutal 1998-1999 war between separatist ethnic Albanian rebels and Serb forces, which ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign that drove Serb troops out and a peacekeeping force moved in.
As of September last year, 98 of the UN’s 193 member nations had recognized Kosovo, including the vast majority of EU members, the UK and the US.
Russia, which has close ties to Serbia, and China are among the countries that have not recognized its independence.
Negotiations to normalize ties between Kosovo and Serbia, which started a decade ago, stalled last year.
UN Special Envoy for Kosovo Zahir Tanin told the council that on Monday he met Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, “who assured me of his understanding of the strategic importance of advancing the dialogue with Belgrade.”
Tanin said that on Tuesday he spoke to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who highlighted “the importance of the dialogue for peace and stability, and reiterated his hope that this dialogue should be intensified, in order to produce results beyond those previously accomplished.”
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