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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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Russia's principled support to Kosovo talks very important for Serbia

Moscow, 23 November 2007

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic voiced satisfaction with results of his visit to Moscow and highlighted the importance of Russia's principled support to the Kosovo negotiating process which should lead to a compromising solution for the province's future status, and not to an artificially fixed deadline.

Author: Tanjug

Jeremic told the press late yesterday in Moscow that Serbia is encouraged by Russia's principled stance because that means that it is not possible that the UN Security Council will reach any decision that is not a result of consensus and that would be contrary to international law.

The minister said that during the talks conducted under the auspices of the Contact Group's troika of envoys, the Serbian team has been very flexible and is constantly giving new and concrete proposals. The Serbian team has given the official response to the troika's proposal on the future status of Kosovo contained in 14 points.

During the last two rounds, the Serbian side made functional parallels with Hong Kong, the minister said and explained that if the model of Hong Kong, which is a narrower autonomy than the one Serbia is offering, can work, then our autonomy can work as well. The Serbian state negotiating team also presented the example of Onland Islands in Europe. The minister underlined that Serbia is ready to cede a considerable range of powers to Kosovo-Metohija and keep a certain number of prerogatives related to state sovereignty.

Welcoming the recent public reaction from the EU occasioned by statements of the leader of Kosovo Albanians Hasim Taci on unilateral proclamation of independence, Jeremic said that the Albanian negotiation team hasn't gone further from the proposal on friendship between two independent and separate states, for which Belgrade concluded that it is a post-status proposal and that it is not in line with the subject of talks either in terms of procedure or contents.

He said that pressures are not affecting the Albanian side because they are simply convinced that they will get what they want after December 10, and in such circumstances reaching a compromise is difficult.

The Serbian Foreign Minister said that although the Serbian side has been constructive and flexible and has shown that it is ready make concessions to the Albanian side, such approach did not meet a symmetric response.

Speaking about efforts of the Contact Group's troika, Jeremic said that so far it has been homogeneous and come up only with proposals on which an agreement has been made, and voiced hope that it will continue to do so in the future.

During the official visit to the Russian Federation, Jeremic gave an interview to Rossijskaja gazeta and underlined that Serbia will insists that talks be continued if a compromise is not reached by December 10.

We hope that there will be no unilateral proclamation of independence, that common sense will prevail in the international community and that the talks will be continued and lead to a compromising solution, Jeremic said.

Underlining that a unilateral proclamation of independence would be contrary to the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and the UN SC Resolution 1244, the minister said that it would create a precedent and become example for others as well. He also rejected the possibility of use of force in that case.

He said that the negotiating process is really going hard and the main reason for that is the unyielding attitude of Kosovo Albanians.

Jeremic said that Serbia highly appreciates Russia's position which is principled and in line with international law and voiced hope that Russia will continue to support a compromising solution, reached in the talks of the two sides.