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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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Most UN Security Council members support continuation of peaceful negotiations

Belgrade, 15 February 2008

Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic said that at last night's session most of the UN Security Council member states supported the continuation of peaceful negotiations on the status of Kosovo-Metohija.

Vuk Jeremic

Author: Tanjug

Jeremic told the press after the Security Council session in New York that most of the member states believe that a solution to complicated problems can be found only through peaceful negotiations, and reiterated that there is a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia, which is a UN member.

If the world remains silent while a sovereign state, a UN member, with internationally recognised borders, , is violently dismembered then tomorrow we will wake up in a world in which the interests of any sovereign state will not be guaranteed, the Minister underlined.

He said that Serbia requested the UN Security Council to join it in the defence of the UN Charter, Resolution 1244 of the Security Council, and all principles of international law, and in its efforts to declare null and void any possible illegal declaration of Kosovo's independence by interim authorities in Pristina.

Some say that Kosovo is a unique case, Jeremic said, but many countries are worried and follow with great attention developments on the debate over Serbia’s southern province.

That is not because Kosovo is a unique case. Kosovo is not a unique case. There is nothing unique about intentions to achieve secession motivated by ethnicity. There are many such cases in the world, but this would be the first time that a secession movement receives support from key members of the Security Council, Jeremic warned.

He reiterated that Serbia is ready to continue with the process of finding a compromise solution for the future status of its province, and recalled that the negotiations lasted 15 months and after that period, it has been said that there is no room for dialogue any longer and that there is no solution.

Imagine if that same attitude were applied to the problems in the Middle East, Africa, the Far East... We don't think that such an attitude can get support from the UN. We asked for the protection under the first principle of the UN Charter, and that is equality of the states. We asked for the protection of our sovereignty and territorial integrity as a UN member. We asked that dialogue be continued, that moves of unilateral secession not be recognised, let alone encouraged, Jeremic underlined.

A small number of Security Council members are in favour of that, Jeremic said, although those are very powerful states.

Serbia believes that peaceful, democratic dialogue is the way to solve problems in the 21st century. Serbia will not use force and it stated that clearly, as opposed to Kosovo Albanians. I wish that they did the same. But Serbia will invoke all diplomatic, political and economic measures in order to prevent that illegitimate act of secession, Jeremic stressed.

He said that it is not too late to prevent that, since that would bring new tensions to the Balkans, where there have already been too many, and underlined that Serbia cannot trade with its land and sell it.

We cannot sell part of our body, of our heart. Serbia is ready for a compromise, for a solution that would be acceptable to both us and Albanians. Such a solution is possible, the Serbian Foreign Minister concluded.