At the meeting of the United Nations Security Council tomorrow is expected a diplomatic struggle to keep the Kosovo issue on the agenda of the world organization that corresponds to Belgrade, writes daily Politika today.
Belgrade, with the help of its allies, primarily Russia and China, continues to fight that the debate on the situation in Kosovo does not withdraw from the agenda of the UN Security Council. On the other side, Pristina and its Western allies are striving to place the topic aside, if not to completely remove it. The shortest, those would be the positions of the two sides at tomorrow’s new Security Council session to discuss the regular quarterly report of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the situation in Kosovo.
UNMIK chief Zahir Tanin assessed at the last session in mid-May that the dialogue fell into a dead end and the fact is that nothing has changed in meantime. The situation is not exactly identical to that of three months ago. At the proposal of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, the issue of opening an internal dialogue on Kosovo was raised in Serbia. From the very top of the government, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić, but also from some other members of the government, already have arrived the first ideas about resolving the Serbian-Albanian conflict over Kosovo.
A few days ago, Tanin visited Belgrade where he met with Vučić and Dačić. As it was announced, they discussed the current political and security situation in Kosovo ahead of the Security Council session on August 16th. As well as that they agreed that the presence of the UN mission is very important for maintaining stability in Kosovo, but also the importance of conducting internal dialogue on Kosovo, writes the daily.
Former Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Vladislav Janković says to daily Politika that it was a great mistake to move out Kosovo talks of the Security Council and transfer it onto the EU. He said that it is now important to keep the frequency of consideration of the Kosovo issue in the Security Council as well as that he is convinced that Serbia will not do what no other state in modern history did in the last two hundred years – to give part of its territory for the sake of joining an organization.
A researcher of international relations at the Institute for International Politics and Economy Vladimir Trapara says that Serbia has some advantage in terms of the veto rights that China and Russia have.
As far as Kosovo’s entry into the UN, Trapara says that Serbia is doing everything for this not to happen and that it will continue to insist on it. On the eventual return of negotiations with Pristina under the auspices of the UN, he says that this could only happen if Serbia resolves to step down from its position and give Kosovo a major concession, such as a chair in UN. Then it might make sense to talk about it in the UN. But that would not be the talks, but the capitulation of Serbia. In the end, Trapara estimates that this will not happen.
