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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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Kosovo-Metohija’s future status – challenge on Serbia’s road to safe, prosperous future

Belgrade, 29 October 2007

Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic stated in San Francisco yesterday that the future status of Kosovo-Metohija is a challenge on Serbia’s road to a safe and prosperous future.

Addressing the participants of the 17th annual convention of the Serbian Unity Congress, Jeremic said that Serbia will become an EU member in five years.

That substantial and key objective is the Serbian government’s priority, stressed the foreign minister.

He voiced belief that encouragement provided by the perspective of the EU membership in upcoming years will help Serbia fully establish democratic institutions, make peace with its neighbours, further develop the economy, raise the living standard of citizens to the European level and reform the social care system.

However, the challenge of Kosovo-Metohija’s future status is a huge obstacle on the road to a safe and prosperous future and threatens to bring down all that Serbia has achieved since it re-established democracy, warned Jeremic.

He said that talks on the province’s future status are now in a very delicate stage.

Having presented in brief the plan proposed by UN Special Envoy for Kosovo-Metohija Martti Ahtisaari, which Serbia rejected, Jeremic said that three rounds of direct talks between Belgrade and Pristina were held; however, little progress has been made.

The reason is not difficult to understand. The Contact Group’s troika of envoys declared December 10 as deadline for a successful conclusion of the talks. Some key participants in the process have been sending messages to both sides that the province’s independence will be imposed if an agreement is not reached by that date, explained the Minister.

According to Jeremic, Serbia’s stance is that Belgrade and Pristina could focus on reaching a mutually acceptable solution through talks only if no firm deadlines are imposed.

If we redefine December 10 as the deadline for the assessment of progress and accept the stance that nothing is more important than reaching agreement acceptable for everyone, we will for the first time create the middle ground in which a historic agreement can be reached, said Jeremic.

He added that the encouraging thing is that more states included in the process now understand this line of thinking, and awareness is increasing of the importance of a much more suitable negotiating time frame, within which a legitimate agreement can be reached.

Jeremic voiced cautious optimism that visions, courage and audacity, necessary for reaching a historic compromise between Serbs and Albanians, lie just under the surface and are waiting to be exploited.

Serbia is truly ready to become a fair-minded partner in peace which would bring prosperity to all, said Jeremic.

He added that the framework of the strategic agreement which Serbia proposed is clear in the sense that it fully obeys the principles of international law stated in documents such as the UN Charter and the Helsinki Agreement.

This means that Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty must be preserved. Serbia’s proposal also fully recognises the legitimate right of the Albanian community in Kosovo-Metohija to autonomous administration of its own affairs, said the Minister and added that this is why ethnic Albanians were offered a wide range of institutional concessions, such as a large degree of self-government.

In short, we offered them a uniquely built partnership for the future under one sovereign roof, explained Jeremic and added that such future must be rooted in the categorical rejection of violence, which must not be present in any stage of the process.

He said that there has never been a more appropriate moment for Serbs and Albanians to cooperate as partners and that the reasons for that are the democratic reconstruction of the Western Balkans and the European perspective of the region.

These two transformed trends – democracy and integration – provide us with hope, said Jeremic and added that Serbia is determined to remain a factor of regional stability and safety in the time of political transformation.

With particular enthusiasm, Jeremic talked about Jovan Dabovic, the first Serb born in the USA who later became monk Sebastian and built the first Serbian Orthodox church in the USA, which is why he can be rightfully called the founder of the Serbian-American community.