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

Serbian negotiating team rejects possibility of changing subject of talks between Belgrade and Pristina

Belgrade, 21 November 2007

Serbian Minister for Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic said today that the status of Kosovo-Metohija is the sole subject of negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina and the Serbian negotiating team rejects any possibility of changing the subject of talks.

In a statement to the news agency Tanjug, Samardzic said that EU representative in the troika of envoys Wolfgang Ischinger misconstrued the course of talks held yesterday in Brussels, when he stated that he hopes that some sort of agreement on cooperation between Belgrade and Pristina will be reached in Vienna.

He thus incorrectly interpreted the course of talks in Brussels and particularly the message which Serbia conveyed in the talks, said the Minister. He stressed that the Serbian side made it clear that Serbia does not want to change the subject of status to the subject of relations, or any kind of partnership between Belgrade and Pristina.

He reiterated that status is the main subject and the troika has the mandate solely to discuss status. Due to this fact, Belgrade, from the very start of the talks rejected the possibility that any kind of relations or agreement on future relations between Belgrade and Pristina are discussed.

According to Samardzic, it is possible to talk about such relations only when negotiations on status are concluded and the status is established in accordance with Resolution 1244 and international law.

The Minister stressed that until that point is reached, it is impossible to open any other subject or talks on other questions, and this was stated very clearly yesterday as well as in the previous period.

He said that it is astonishing that Ischinger is insisting upon a subject which was categorically and repeatedly rejected, and was explicitly rejected once more yesterday at the meeting in Brussels.

Belgrade expects that future talks will deal with the correct subject, which is the future status of Kosovo-Metohija and that the troika, including Ischinger, will invest effort into finding a solution based on compromise for the issue of the province's future status, stressed Samardzic.