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Fourth round of direct talks on Kosovo future status begins in Vienna

Vienna, 5 November 2007

The fourth round of direct talks between representatives of Belgrade and Pristina on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija with the mediation of the Contact Group’s troika of envoys began this morning in Vienna.

The talks started at 9 am at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the form of separate consultations of Belgrade and Pristina with the troika of envoys composed of EU, US and Russian representatives – Wolfgang Ischinger, Frank Wisner and Alexander Bocan-Harchenko.

Following the meetings of the troika and the negotiating teams, direct talks between delegations from Belgrade and Pristina will be held at 1:30 pm.

The Serbian team is headed by Serbian President and Prime Minister, Boris Tadic and Vojislav Kostunica respectively, and heads of the Pristina delegation are Kosovo President and Prime Minister, Fatmir Sejdiu and Agim Ceku.

Serbian Minister for Kosovo-Metohija and team coordinator Slobodan Samardzic stated that today’s talks will concern the status of the Serbian southern province and Belgrade’s reply to the troika’s proposal.

Upon arrival to Vienna last night, Samardzic told the press that he thinks there is still room for talks on the Kosovo-Metohija status since that item of the agenda has not yet been fully exhausted.

We will demonstrate the practical side and the benefit of the approach we represent – the approach advocating substantial autonomy within Serbia. We will show that it is not only a good solution for Serbs and Albanians, but also a functional solution that may function if the international community accepts it and if there is good will on the part of ethnic Albanians, stressed the Minister.

He recalled that the good will on the part of Albanians has been lacking until now due to purely political reasons and added that the Serbian side has a good proposal which is functional in everyday life.

The meeting will also look at the 14 points of the troika’s proposal, and that is the last item on the agenda, said Samardzic and added he expects the troika and the Albanian delegation to open a discussion on Belgrade’s reply to this proposal.

He also voiced conviction that there is still a lot of room to do something to the benefit of a compromise solution and denied that the agenda will include Wolfgang Ischinger’s proposal that the Kosovo-Metohija issue be resolved according to the German-German agreement from 1972.