Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbs, Albanians can reach compromise through direct talks

Belgrade, 8 April 2006

Advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister and member of the Serbian negotiating team for Kosovo-Metohija Aleksandar Simic gave a statement for today's edition of the daily Vecernje Novosti. He spoke about the third round of talks on decentralisation in Kosovo-Metohija held today in Vienna.

Aleksandar Simic

The Serbian government's official web site gives excerpts of the interview.

Is it possible for Serbs and ethnic-Albanians to reach agreement at direct talks?

I believe so and I think that is the only way. At the last meeting we were much more straightforward and at ease with each other than when Hashim Thaci was in the Pristina delegation. However, statements that talks must be concluded and a compromise solution found by year's end are greatly hindering an open and essential dialogue. Were it not for that, we could leave aside some huge ideological and status-related issues and start solving actual problems.

Does this mean that Belgrade plans to leave the "status-related" issues aside for the time being?

No, this is not our intention. We only accepted Martti Ahtisaari's plan to first negotiate issues related to the life there.

Is it likely that you will start discussing other concrete issues on the province's future status after the talks on decentralisation?

If international mediators wish to raise the talks on a status-dependent level, we are ready. However, it is my personal impression that the Contact Group is against it. There are clear differences among its members: the USA want to speed up the talks, Russia wants a compromise solution and respect of UN SC Resolution 1244. I think the talks will continue at the current pace for now.

What are the odds that a compromise will be reached?

We should not expect too much because Serbs and ethnic-Albanians have not had any direct talks for quite some time. But we cannot say that the starting positions have not changed because, for instance, the Albanian side now agrees to certain points they found unacceptable only three months ago, such as institutional bonds between Belgrade and Serb municipalities in Kosovo.

Is it possible that the Serbian side will face an accomplished fact?

It was obvious that Albert Roan led the last meeting in such a way to avoid any significant differences in the opinion between the two sides, in an attempt to juxtapose their similarities and disimilarities. We are expecting to receive this list early next week. Theoretically, we could say that the Contat Group, using the "arithmetic mean" principle, might offer a final solution to both sides. However, when it comes to decentralisation, such an act would be discouraging for the continuation of talks.

Besides the talks on Kosovo-Metohija, is Serbia increasing its diplomatic activities towards international power centres?

Quite right. Our diplomatic efforts will first and foremost be directed towards the Contact Group member countries. Then, next week, Head of the Coordinating Centre Sanda Raskovic-Ivic is going to Brussels. In early May we are expecting a visit to China and planning our activities toward other Council of Europe member countries: Argentina, Denmark, Greece, Japan and Slovakia.