Kosovo will not join the UN as a member as long as Serbia, and her friends in the UN Security Council, organized as it is now, exist, Tomislav Nikolić has said. “There is great pressure on countries that have not recognized Kosovo to do so,” the Serbian president told reporters in Belgrade on Monday, adding: “All this needs to be withstood, one must fight with all one’s might and never will that so-called state of Kosovo become a member of the UN, as long as Serbia exists, and her friends in the UN Security Council organization such as it is now.”
According to him, “those are all attempts going in another direction, to face the problem of meeting with representatives of Kosovo almost daily, in various gatherings.”
“We have made a decision not to block them (Pristina) in regional integration – that is what we signed in Brussels, but nothing more than that,” Nikolić said, adding Serbia would rightfully continue to fight and try to keep the so-called state of Kosovo from joining international organizations. He said he has been facing “the problem of pressures over Kosovo” since the first day of his mandate, and that he immediately learned from Serbia’s many friends worldwide that there are countries pressuring others to recognize Kosovo.
Some countries have yielded to the pressure, and the pressure will continue as it is coming from at least a few centers of power – in particular the United States, Turkey and EU member states, he said. “That is clear to everyone and should not be hidden, and I told that to U.S. Vice President Biden,” he said. Nikolić added that “everyone carries out their policy” while “the big think they have the right to determine the policy of small states and nations.”
Asked “whether there is a solution (for Kosovo)” and if it could be contained in a platform that he has sent to the government, Nikolić said this was now in the hands of the government, which is conducting both the country’s foreign and internal policy. “I no longer have my representative in the negotiations, either. The first platform was adopted in the Assembly and it, like the Brussels agreement, features the Serb community in Kosovo and Metohija as its part. I also went a step further than that, to elaborate on it,” he said.
According to the president, the government “probably” has a plan of its own – “into which it has certainly included parts of the platform.”
