According to the daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti, Belgrade in the coming months will determine through “a comprehensive diplomatic action” how many precisely states have recognised the independence of Kosovo.
As the daily writes, there are doubts that the list of recognitions presented by the authorities in Pristina is not credible, because of which Belgrade decided to check the situation ‘on the ground’.
Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic pointed out to Novosti that in the Pristina’s list of 114 countries there are at least seven or eight that have never recognized Kosovo.
In the past years, as Novosti reports, officials from several countries have assured Serbia that they did not draw such moves.
The last country that, according to Kosovo Foreign Minister Bexhet Pacolli, sent last weekend a “verbal note” of recognition is Madagascar, so this case will be checked too, Vecernje Novosti writes.
Professor of International Law, Bojan Milisavljevic, explains to Novosti that an act of recognition belongs to the bilateral relations, and there is no universal database in which could be verified whether all the recognitions, that Pristina claims to have received it, really went through the necessary procedure and as such have arrived to Pristina. There is no such data in the United Nations because Kosovo is not a member of this world organization.
– The only way to determine this is that our country examines this issue with each country separately. Governments are responsible for the act of recognition as the bearers of the executive power, and with them it should be checked – says prof. Milisavljevic.
According to information of Vecernje Novosti, Oman officials, for example, repeatedly denied, in their talks with Serbian counterparts, that they have recognized Kosovo in 2011. Also, the daily cite as ‘a dubious fact’ the recognition from the Central African Republic of 2011, because three years later in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that country was not found an official document that would substantiate the claims of Pristina. There are similar concerns in the cases of Nigeria and Uganda.
Pristina has recorded its recognition from the African island of São Tomé and Príncipe on its list, claiming that it received a “verbal note” of recognition. However, according to information available to Belgrade, the decision made by the coalition government of that country in March 2012 never entered into force, writes the Belgrade based daily Vecernje Novosti.
