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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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Continuation of Kosovo talks possible after meeting of US and Russian presidents

Belgrade, 25 June 2007

State Secretary in the Ministry for Kosovo-Metohija Dusan Prorokovic said in an interview with daily Blic that there will be no voting on the UN Security Council resolution before the meeting of US President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, expressing expectation that the meeting will result in agreement on continuation of substantial negotiations and withdrawal of the resolution proposed by the US and other countries.

The official website of the Serbian government brings excerpts from the interview.

What is contained in the proposal that Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica sent to President Putin?

“That is a paper of procedural character. That was agreed on between President Putin and Prime Minister Kostunica and I think that the Serbian Prime Minister is more in charge of speaking about this.”

What kind of denouement of the Kosovo issue do you expect?

“The most favourable scenario is to continue negotiations that are not limited by deadlines. The other option is postponement, which neither of the parties supports, but as there is no consensus, it is clear that a new resolution will not be adopted in the form in which it was submitted to the UN Security Council. The third option would be that some countries unilaterally acknowledge Kosovo’s independence. To us, the most problematic would be US support, but my estimate is that only ten to 20 countries in the world would support province’s independence.”

Do you expect that EU countries will take a common position?

“The principle position of the EU is that it will establish its future engagement on Kosovo on the basis of the UN Security Council resolution. As long as there is no decision of the Security Council, there will be no reactions in the EU.”

What is acceptable to Serbia in new negotiations?

“The question is whether something can be called negotiations. If we talk about negotiations, then these should be talks between two sides that are not limited by time and that are substantial. I assume that new negotiations would be led by a new international representative as the mission of UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari ended without success.”

What are the chances for negotiations to resume?

“The only way out is for the substantial negotiations to happen, sooner or later. It is more difficult, like in the case of Cyprus, to talk after 20 years. I would not wish that scenario for Kosovo-Metohija.”

What steps can Serbia take with regard to countries that unilaterally acknowledge Kosovo’s independence?

“There can be many steps, but no one would now name them precisely. Apart from a set of political and diplomatic steps that we can take, we have to strengthen partnership with states that support us about Kosovo.”

Might conflicts emerge in the case of postponement of status decision?

“No violence in Kosovo is uncontrolled. I don’t think that there will be violence as it is not good for Kosovo Albanians and KFOR announced a more drastic reaction than on March 17, 2004. I think that violence threats are exaggerated so that those Serbs who remain in the province are intimidated.”