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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Foreign Ministry to propose return of ambassadors to EU countries

Belgrade, 20 July 2008

Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic said today that he will propose at the next government session that Serbian ambassadors who were withdrawn from EU countries that recognised the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo be returned to those countries.

Vuk Jeremic at today's press conference

Speaking at a press conference at the Serbian government, Jeremic said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided after consultations with the President of the Republic of Serbia to propose a partial revision of the Action plan that will entail the return of ambassadors to EU countries and normalisation of relations.

He explained that the aim of this action is to enhance Serbia's diplomatic resources and efforts so that it can obtain EU candidate status by the end of the year. He added that only the ambassadors to EU countries will be returned and if the government supports this proposal, it will be done immediately.

The Ministry has estimated that this revision of the Action plan will bring optimum results, the minister said and underlined that despite this, Serbia must never send a signal that might be interpreted as desisting from defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

We believe that despite criticism, this Action plan has given excellent results and that our achievement at the foreign policy level is enormous since only a small number of countries recognised the unilateral independence of Kosovo, which has not become a member of any important international institution, Jeremic said.

Asked by reporters whether he consulted Russian officials on this proposal during his recent visit to Moscow, the minister said that Serbia is a sovereign state that makes its decisions independently, but that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov strongly supported this idea.

Jeremic said that Lavrov believes that this is an excellent idea and added that the same ambassadors who had been withdrawn will be returned and that will be done with immediate effect since Serbia has no time to waste.

At the same time, the minister announced the beginning of negotiations between Belgrade and the UN on the international civilian presence in Kosovo-Metohija for next week.

The plan of Martti Ahtisaari does not exist and no mission in Kosovo can implement that plan which Serbia rejected and it cannot be the basis for the presence of the EU mission, Jeremic stressed and added that he told that to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and the UN Secretary-General.

Tomorrow morning I will send a request to UNMIK chief Lambert Zannier to start negotiations since UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon authorised Zannier to lead them.

After the talks in New York, Paris and Moscow we can say that negotiations on the international civilian presence in the province will start under UN auspices and explained that that is the result of an agreement with the UN Secretary-General, with Russia’s support .

He said that Belgrade appreciates the EU’s willingness to assume an important role in the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, but that cannot happen without the approval of Serbia and the UN Security Council.

At the next session of the UN General Assembly in September, Serbia intends to submit a resolution, requesting the consultative opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legitimacy of Kosovo’s unilateral proclamation of independence.

We want to hear from the International Court of Justice whether interim institutions in Kosovo violated international law on February 17 by declaring unilateral independence from Serbia, Jeremic explained.

He underlined that that will not be an easy process since Serbia must obtain a majority for that in the General Assembly which consists of 192 countries, the most important of which are against that resolution.

Very respectable countries, which look upon that issue differently, are against us. We will do everything to obtain the majority since we believe that international law is on our side. If we succeed, that will be the biggest diplomatic victory of our country since the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement, Jeremic concluded.