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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia insists on Kosovo status issue and expects negotiations to continue

Belgrade, 25 November 2007

Serbian Minister for Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic said that in the forthcoming final round of negotiations the Serbian delegation will insist on talks on the future status of the southern province, expecting that mediators will suggest continuation of negotiations in their final report.

File photo of Slobodan Samardzic

Author: Tanjug

Samardzic told Tanjug news agency that the state negotiating team so far showed that there are things to be said about the status and that the Serbian delegation was very active in proposing concrete solutions for the future status of Kosovo-Metohija.

He stressed that it was the Serbian delegation that held the pace and tension of these negotiations for the past three months and a half and that it will do so in Baden as well, where it plans to prove with arguments its positions on the future Kosovo status.

We will show that our proposal is closest to European experiences in solving the issues of autonomy or autonomous position of minorities within internationally recognised states, the Minister explained.

Samardzic stressed that it is particularly important for the state negotiating team that the report of the mediating troika is based on as much material as possible.

If the report be fair and unbiased, it will mostly concern the topics and proposals offered by Belgrade during these negotiations, the Minister said and noted that Pristina delegations so far has been absolutely passive.

Its whole concept and all that we agreed on can be formulated with one word – independence for Kosovo-Metohija; hence, they did not even want to discuss the status, stressed Samardzic.

He noted that the Serbian negotiating team hopes that the troika will nevertheless have a good material incorporated in their report and will show that there are solutions for the status, on the basis of which they will require continuations of the talks.

Therefore, there are grounds for the talks to continue and we will do everything in Baden for that to happen, the Minister added.

Speaking on expectations after December 10, when the troika made up of Wolfgang Ischinger, Frank Wisner and Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko will submit a report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Samardzic said that the UN Secretary-General will not be able to do anything with that report.

He can only transfer the report to the Security Council which will access it and decide what to do next. That meeting is expected around December 19. The Security Council will then open a discussion and we hope that on the basis of that report it will propose further steps, the Minister said.

Samardzic said that as far as Belgrade is concerned the most normal thing would be for the Security Council to reach an agreement on continuation of negotiations.