Byzantine Blog

The Only Way Out: New Stage of Belgrade—Pristina Talks (Without Ahtisaari and Outside Pressure)

Serbian government on Friday sent a request to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for initiating a new stage of talks on the status of Kosovo-Metohija province.

The government adopted a text titled “Iniative of the Republic of Serbia for opening a new stage of the talks on the status of Kosovo and Metohija” and sent it to Ki-Moon stressing that this is the only way for the interested participants be able to reach an agreed solution for the status of Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija.

Serbian government urged the opening of a new stage of talks between representatives of the Republic of Serbia and representatives of the temporary self-government organs in Kosovo and Metohija, with the basic aim of reaching an agreed solution for the status of the province between the interested parties.

“Such a solution, coupled with international mediation, would represent a guarantee of longterm stability and a condition of unimpeded economic and social development of the region,” the Serbian government said in its initiative.

In order to realize this goal, it is necessary to create a good negotiating milieu, propose the corresponding procedure and allow an adequate time frame without artificially imposed deadlines, the Serbian government said.

“By proposing this initiative, the Republic of Serbia, aware of the historic importance of a just solution to the problem, is prepared to fully assume its part of the responsibility for the successful conducting and completion of the negotiations,” it is said.

In the initiative, the government started from the generally-recognized fact that the talks on the future status of Kosovo and Metohija, led by Martti Ahtisaari, failed to result in an agreed draft solution.

Serbian government’s initiative follows the entirely unacceptable “comprehensive proposal for the resolution of the status of Kosovo” province presented to the UN Secreatary General by his envoy Ahtisaari.

Serbian government expressed its opposition to Ahtisaari’s proposal through numerous amendments, filed by the State Negotiation Team of the Republic of Serbia.

In its initiative for opening a new stage of the talks, Serbian government called on all international participants to give their contribution to a peaceful, lasting, sustainable and comprehensive resolution of the issue of Kosovo and Metohija on the basis of the principles, norms and good customs of international law, which are the basis of the existing international order.

Kosovo-Metohija Minister: Serbia Dissatisfied With the Way Ahtisaari Steered Talks — Towards Failure

Serbian Minister for Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic said Friday that the main reason for the government to adopt the Initiative is dissatisfaction with the outcome and the way the negotiations steered by Martti Ahtisaari were conducted.

Speaking at a press conference held after the government session, Samardzic pointed out that result of Ahtisaari’s efforts is a proposal made by himself and his team, which Serbian parliament rejected in its entirety as illegal and illegitimate on February 14.

After that, at the talks conducted between February 21 and March 2, Serbian delegation made over 500 amendments to the proposal, which speaks volumes about the Serbian position on the proposal, said Minister Samardzic, adding that the government’s decision to adopt the Initiative was preceded by yesterday’s consultations between Serbian President Boris Tadic, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic.

Stuck Over its Resolution Proposal, U.S. State Department Orders EU Countries to Persuade Russia to Give In

In consultations which were held so far, the United States has not succeeded to disperse Russia’s reserve over its draft resolution on Kosovo-Metohija, which official Moscow views as one that does not represent a serious basis for a decision to be reached by the UN Security Council, Tanjug has learned at the UN headquarters.

That is why the United States will most probably postpone the presentation of its resolution to the UN SC, which they announced would be presented on Friday.

According to Tanjug’s diplomatic US and Russian sources at the UN, the United States and Russia, even after a series of talks, failed to make any progress in overcoming different stands as regards the adoption of a new resolution on Kosovo, but the talks, on different levels, will be continued.

According to the sources, the European Union was assigned with taking over the task to “persuade Russia” to give in, as a way out the obvious dead-end in which the talks about the new resolution for southern Serbian province have found themselves in.

The Russian diplomats confirmed to Tanjug that at the three meetings which experts and UN SC ambassadors held so far on the issue of Kosovo-Metohija, the stands of the great powers did not get any closer.

They pointed out that Moscow holds that the solutions proposed by the West do not represent a serious basis for the decision of the UN Security Council, as well as that Russian Federation does not support the plan drafted by Martti Ahtisaari.