LOCAL PRESS

 

Vucic: Serbia not responsible for migrations, undertook all measures (RTS/Tanjug)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said that Serbia was not responsible for the current migration, which has upset Europe. After talks with the European Commissioner for Migration, Internal Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos in Belgrade, Vucic told a press conference that Serbia quickly took action in consultation with Brussels and some European governments. According to Vucic, Serbia will intensify border control and accept advice and ideas coming from the EU. “I said we would continue dialogue with everyone with whom we disagree on certain issues, and that we would continue the dialogue in Brussels,” said Vucic.

Avramopoulos said that Serbia played a constructive role when it comes to stopping asylum seekers from Kosovo. He added that Serbia is expected to take decisive actions and especially intensify control of the border with Hungary in order to solve the problem of asylum seekers, especially Albanians from Kosovo. “Even though Kosovo dominates in the media, Serbian citizens are also among the most numerous asylum seekers. The key thing for opening Chapter 24 is for Serbia to undertake resolute steps when it comes to stopping migrations from Kosovo and asylum seekers from Serbia,” said Avramopoulos. The European official pointed to a series of joint commitments with Kosovo that he wants to see realized in the upcoming period. Serbia is also expected to enable a speedy return of those to whom the request for asylum was rejected.

 

Serbian government adopts Decree in regard to the dialogue with Pristina (Radio Serbia)

The Serbian government has adopted the Decree on establishing an Office for Coordinating Affairs in the negotiating process with the provisional self-government institutions in Pristina, as well as the Decree on establishing and regulating the Coordination Body for this negotiating process.

 

Gasic: Cooperation with NATO should reflect Serbia’s needs (Tanjug)

Cooperation with NATO should reflect Serbia’s needs, Serbian Minister of Defense Bratislav Gasic said on Wednesday, adding that by participating in the Partnership for Peace program, the country is building the necessary capacities for the engagement in the UN and EU operations. At a meeting in Belgrade with Commander of Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, Admiral Mark Ferguson, Gasic said that thereby Serbia is actively contributing to the development of the EU Common Security and Defense Policy, in accordance with clear foreign policy priorities, such as the EU membership, the Ministry of Defense released in a statement. The officials concluded that the adoption of the Individual Partnership Action Plan between Serbia and NATO stands as the highest level of cooperation with a partner state, which has not opted for the NATO membership. The adoption of this plan represents a clear message that Serbia wants to foster cooperation with NATO, primarily on the political level, the statement reads. The topics of the meeting, which was attended by Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Army General Ljubisa Dikovic, were military cooperation between Serbia and NATO under the auspices of the Partnership for Peace, cooperation between the Serbian Armed Forces and KFOR, and regional cooperation in the field of defense and security. Both parties underlined that they are satisfied with the cooperation through programs and mechanisms of the Partnership for Peace program, the Ministry stated. Gasic pointed out that through the development of cooperation and dialogue, Serbia wants to contribute to regional and global stability, the statement reads. Gasic thanked KFOR for the professional approach in implementing the mandate endorsed by UNSCR 1244. He stressed that the Serbian Army’s cooperation with KFOR is excellent on all levels, the statement says. Serbia is “clearly committed to developing and promoting cooperation with the countries in the region, and that cooperation is one of Serbia's foreign policy priorities”, said Gasic.

 

Ivanovic: EULEX credibility undermined, indictment false (Tanjug/Radio Kontakt plus)

The credibility of EULEX is seriously undermined by the false and politically motivated indictment brought against me, the leader of the SDP Civic Initiative Oliver Ivanovic said. In a written statement that his attorney submitted to the Mitrovica-based Radio Kontakt plus, Ivanovic said that the process against him is political, and that he was disappointed since it has not yet been decided to replace detention with a less severe measure. Ivanovic said he was disappointed in the international community because he believed in democracy, and it turns out that the indictment is false and that he has been in custody for 13 months. Ivanovic is charged with alleged war crimes in Kosovo and Metohija in 1999.

 

Tahiri: Union of Serb Municipalities last topic (Danas)

“Within the preparations for the new round of the political dialogue, representatives of Serbia and Kosovo had separate talks with EU officials last week in Brussels, but the date of the meeting of two prime ministers was not mentioned. We agreed that the implementation of the agreement on the judiciary should commence by the end of March, and elements for the future agreement on disbanding the Civil Protection and its integration into the Kosovo institutions within six months are in preparation. Only once these and earlier reached agreements are implemented, the negotiations on the Union of Serb Municipalities will be on the agenda,” the Minister without portfolio in the Kosovo government in charge of the negotiations with Belgrade Edita Tahiri told Danas. According to her, Pristina also insists on “urgent removal of the barricades on the bridge over the Ibar River in Kosovska Mitrovica on which a trilateral agreement was reached last year in Brussels”. Danas received unofficial confirmation at the Serbian government that the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric attended “the Brussels preparations” last week. Danas’ sources claim that Belgrade has remained with the earlier nominated topics: the Union of Serb Municipalities, Serbian property in Kosovo and Metohija and the position of the Serbs in Kosovo institutions, and that it will try to prevent Pristina and Brussels in their intention to discuss the Union of Serb Municipalities at the end. Circles close to the government are announcing that the meeting between Prime Minister Vucic and the Serb (Srpska) List, which had “frozen” participation in the Kosovo government and assembly, could take place by the end of this week.

 

Rustemov: Kazakhstan will never recognize independence of Kosovo (Tanjug)

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Rasim Ljajic and the Ambassador of Kazakhstan Nurbah Rustemov agreed today that the first session of the inter-government committee for economic cooperation between Serbia and Kazakhstan should be held in the course of this year. Rustemov conveyed the stand of his state that it will never recognize the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo. The cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister announced that Ljajic had met with the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Serbia on non-resident basis, with whom he discussed improvement of overall relations between the two countries and opportunities for expanding economic cooperation. Ljajic and Rustemov also announced the signing of the bilateral agreement on avoiding double taxation, which has been completely harmonized, as well as the agreement on cooperation in the sphere of tourism, joint appearance on third markets and cooperation in the sphere of information-communication technologies, which are in preparation.

Rustemov announced that Kazakhstan will open in the course of next year the building of the general consulate in Belgrade, and that an embassy will be opened afterwards, the statement reads.

 

Vukcevic: There is no evidence against Stojanovic (Novosti)

“The Serbian Prosecution is treating the crimes in Meja near Djakovica and in this sense we have certain knowledge about the event and possible perpetrators. Momir Stojanovic has so far not appeared as a potential perpetrator of the criminal offence of war crimes, but I don’t know what evidence is in the possession of the colleagues from EULEX,” War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic told Novosti.

How strong is the evidence against the general and why was the red warrant issued for him precisely now?

“EULEX is autonomous in passing such decisions that it had realized through UNMIK. I don’t know what evidence they have and on what basis they have placed many people on the red warrants. Why was everything done precisely now and not earlier, those are questions that intrude into the domain of politics and not the judiciary. I am not good in the first domain.”

Will you cooperate with EULEX on this subject?

“I am prepared to check, along with appropriate consent of the authorized bodies, the allegations charging Stojanovic and other persons on this warrant. However, the problem is lack of the legal framework, because EULEX is proceeding from the position of the sovereignty and recognition of Kosovo as a state, and the Serbian institutions in accordance with the Constitution and Resolution 1244. The only signed document so far is the one on technical cooperation between the Serbian Interior Ministry and EULEX. Still, through EULEX’s request towards Serbian state organs, the Justice Ministry, in a harmonized form, we can approach the attempt at resolving these cases.”

Is the Prosecution investigating the allegations of the Fund for Humanitarian Law against the Chief of Staff Ljubisa Dikovic?

“The Prosecution is checking the allegations of every criminal charge that it receives. This is precisely how we worked when we received the first indictment in 2009, and following checking we established there was no evidence that General Dikovic perpetrated the things he was charged with in this indictment.”

What is the significance of bringing charges for the “Strpce” case?

“By bringing charges after 22 years since the abduction of 20 non-Serb passengers from a train, we made the first step towards establishing the truth about this event and towards achieving justice for the victims and their families.”

What about the investigations of the crimes committed against the Serbs?

“At this moment we are searching for 98 KLA members who perpetrated crimes against Serbs. We also significantly contributed in assisting, together with colleagues from the Serbian Interior Ministry, investigator Clint Williamson and his team, which largely contributed to the formation of the special court for the KLA. The most important thing is that the crimes against non-Albanians that occurred between 1998 and 200 will finally get a court epilogue.”

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

DF’s conditions to go back to the negotiating table (Nezavisne novine)

The conditions under which the Democratic Front could return to negotiations on forming a new composition of the government of the Federation of B&H is the allocation of ministries on the principle of 5-5-5, and 16^th ministry in the government to have shared appointment. This information was confirmed by source close to the negotiations which came to a standstill after the leader of the DF Zeljko Komsic, demonstratively left the negotiations last Sunday, unsatisfied by the treatment they got from their partner, the SDA. Alongside with this condition, the DF has explicitly named the ministries that they want. These are: finance, energy, refugees, tourism and the Ministry of Interior. If the HDZ B&H continues to adamantly defend the right to hold a ministry of finance, but agrees to everything else, the DF would in return for the ministry of finance ask for the ministry of agriculture and the ministry of energy. This in other words means the right for managing large energy public companies in the FB&H. Now the SDA and the HDZ are on the move, but the general impression is that in this constellation the SDA would come out as a loser, or rather its Vice President Bakir Izetbegovic, who due to his surrender of the six demanded ministries to HDZ devalued his own negotiating position, especially as he pre-booked the position of the Minister of Refugees and Internal Affairs, that the DF demands, for his advisers Edin Ramic and Aljosa Campara. Commenting all this, Sadik Ahmetovic the SDA Vice-President, said that the negotiations have no alternative. “I think that at this point the SDA and DF must sit down at the table and in the greatest possible confidence open all outstanding issues, and then they should call the HDZ if they come to an agreement. This is the only way, any different approach would knock out the DF of the game, create a lot of distrust and a crisis,” said Ahmetovic. He reminds that the possibility of a minority government remains open, which, as he stated, would be devastating for the SDA. Emir Suljagic, a member of the DF Presidency, states that after the negotiations came to a standstill the SDA has not jet sent them an official invitation to continue with the negotiations. “When we get an official invitation, party leadership will then decide whether we will return to the negotiating table. Our position is clear to everyone, everyone knows what we want,” said Suljagic, adding that if the SDA and HDZ accept DF’s position, the agreement will be reached in an hour. Yesterday afternoon Safet Softic, one of the SDA Vice-Presidents, confirmed that the official invitation to the DF-versed to return to the negotiating table has been sent in order to try to reach a solution that would be acceptable to all. Nikola Lovrinovic, the HDZ Vice-President, told Nezavisne that at this moment he has no information “about anyone’s new proposals in the process of implementation of the electoral procedure in the Federation”, and added that “everything that leads to an agreement among the partners is welcome”. The worst is when there are no negotiations, just a public speculation.

 

Erdogan: At Srebrenica we saw level of West's hypocrisy (Oslobodjenje)

Bakir Izetbegovic, member of the B&H Presidency, was awarded the Green Crescent’s “Feniks 2015” with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his contributions to the work of that organization. In Istanbul, an award ceremony was organized for the honor bestowed for contributions to the work of the Green Crescent organization. Aside from Erdogan, the award was bestowed on Bakir Izetbegovic, member of the B&H Presidency. Erdogan, before receiving the award from the Green Crescent itself, was given the book “And I am from Srebrenica” (I ja sam iz Srebrenice) personally by the author of that book, the B&H journalist Fikret Hodzic. Erdogan on the occasion recalled that, together with his family, he had visited Srebrenica several times to mark the anniversary of the genocide there. “Srebrenica is a place where we experienced truly different feelings. The place where we saw to what extent the West was hypocritical. Around 8,000 Bosniaks were killed in the genocide in Srebrenica,” recalled Erdogan. After that, Izetbegovic gave the award to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Izetbegovic’s award for his contribution to the work of the organization in B&H was presented by Ihsan Karaman, the president of Yesilay. Izetbegovic, after receiving the award, recalled the long tradition and the work of the Green Crescent, and expressed gratitude for the award, saying that this for him is a rare and special honor. “This organization is a public good of the Republic of Turkey and its citizens. Performing its human mission of prevention and the fight against all forms of dependence in over 30 countries, the light of the Green Crescent has grown into a global organization. The countries that became part of the Green Crescent spread from B&H to Palestine, from Montenegro to Thailand, from Serbia to Lebanon, from Albania to Tanzania.” During the evening, awards were presented to other personalities who had made contributions to the work of the Green Crescent organization. The Green Crescent was formed in 1920, founded by a group of intellectuals on the order of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first president of Turkey. The organization was founded to create a program of prevention and combatting alcoholism, and later against drug dependency and nicotine abuse. It opened in B&H in October of last year.

 

Zagreb County Court asks police to bring in Branimir Glavas (Dalje)

Zagreb County Court on Thursday sent a request to the police in the eastern city of Osijek to escort politician Branimir Glavas, accused of war crimes, to the Remetinec detention center in the Croatian capital. The court spokesman Kresimir Devcic said the court expected the Osijek police to perform that task in the course of the day. The request was issued after the Supreme Court upheld an appeal by the Zagreb County Prosecutor’s Office against an earlier ruling by the Zagreb County Court to release Glavas from custody. The Supreme Court on its web site states that the inductee Glavas should be remanded in custody amid fears that he might destroy evidence or tamper with witnesses since his release. On January 12, the Croatian Constitutional Court partly upheld Glavas’ complaint and quashed his final verdict for war crimes against Serb civilians in Osijek, returning the case to be re-examined by the Supreme Court. In late January the prosecution requested investigative custody for Glavas, saying that after the Constitutional Court quashed his final verdict, Glavas’ non-final verdict by the Zagreb County Court was in force, sentencing him for war crimes to a term of more than five years. Under the non-final verdict, Glavas was given ten years in prison and the Supreme Court later reduced the sentence to eight years. In mid-January, after the Croatian Constitutional Court partly upheld his complaint and quashed his final verdict, Glavas was released from the prison in Mostar, B&H, where he had been serving his eight-year term. He arrived in Osijek, his home town, on February 1.

 

Juncker: Montenegro will face bankruptcy without an agreement with Russia (Oslobodjenje)

Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, warned that Montenegro is at risk of bankruptcy in the event that it loses its arbitrage case connected with the Podgorica Aluminum Foundry (KAP) v. CEAK, a Russian company seeking damages of around €1 billion, and called on the Montenegrin government to come to an agreement and find a sustainable solution with the Russians. He told the Spanish newspaper Nuevo Lunes that the European Parliament had adopted such a proposal in connection with KAP and Montenegro. “Business sources suggest that KAP isn't an isolated case, and that a similar situation is happening with the Dutch MNS, which administered Zeljezar,” said Juncker. He said that VT Bank from Austria had also launched arbitrage in international courts, because they were unable to exercise judicial protection in Montenegro. Commenting on the damages demanded by the Russian CEAK, Juncker said that a billion euros is one-third of Montenegro's gross domestic product. The EC president expressed the hope that the Montenegrin government would hasten reforms in the economy to get a free market in which the state wouldn't intervene, and an independent mechanism for resolving market disputes would protect investors.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbia ‘Has No Evidence’ Against Wanted MP (BIRN, by Marija Ristic, 5 March 2015)

The Serbian prosecution said it had no evidence against ruling party lawmaker Momir Stojanovic after Interpol issued a call for his arrest for alleged war crimes during the Kosovo conflict.

The Serbian prosecution said on Thursday that it has some findings about crimes committed by Yugoslav forces in April 1999 around the Kosovo town of Djakovica/Gjakova, but they don’t incriminate MP Momir Stojanovic. Stojanovic, who is currently the head of the Serbian parliament’s security committee, was last week placed on the Interpol red notice list after EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, said he was suspected of war crimes against civilians in the Djakovica/Gjakova area. “Momir Stojanovic so far didn’t appear as a potential perpetrator of war crimes, but I don’t know what EULEX evidence has,” Vladimir Vukcevic, the chief prosecutor for war crimes, told daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti. “I don’t know what evidence they have and why many of those people are on the red notice. Why this has been done now, and not before, is a question of politics, not a judicial one,” he added. Interpol last week issued notices calling for the arrest of Stojanovic and 16 other people who were part of Belgrade’s forces during the war in Kosovo, accusing them of war crimes against civilians. The men are suspected of involvement in the murders of more than 300 Kosovo Albanians in the villages of Meja and Korenica, near the town of Djakovica in the Reka e Keq area close to the Albanian border in late April 1999. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague has convicted six senior Serbian officials over the crime in Meja and the surrounding villages. According to the ICTY verdicts, the attack on the villages was part of a wide-ranging operation by the Yugoslav Army and police, referred to in military documents as Operation Reka (River). Stojanovic, who also appeared as defence witness in the case against Serb officials, was linked with the April 1999 attacks for the first time during the genocide and war crimes case against late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at the ICTY. According to Nike Peraj, a former Yugoslav Army officer who testified at the Milosevic trial as an insider witness, Stojanovic was among those who issued an order to his subordinates to carry out the ethnic cleansing operation in the Djakovica/Gjakova area. Another witness, testifying under the pseudonym K-73, said that he was in Junik in April 1999 when Stojanovic ordered the troops to cleanse the Caragoj Valley near Djakovica of Kosovo Albanians. Although the Yugoslav army documents show that the 52nd military police brigade took part in the attack on the village of Meja, Stojanovic, who was in charge of the brigade, claimed at the trial he had no knowledge of any crimes committed in the village, particularly not by army troops. In 2007, when Stojanovic testified as a defence witness, he claimed he heard about the killing of more than 300 Albanians in Meja only in 2006 when the trial of the Serbian officials began at the ICTY. He also said he was not aware until the trial that most of the bodies from Meja were found in a mass grave near a police training centre in Batajnica in Serbia. The Interpol notices, the closest thing to an international arrest warrant, were issued as a result of two-year-long investigation by the EU rule-of law-mission in Kosovo and were issued upon a request from the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). So far only one arrest has been made. A former Serbian reservist, Miras Gegovic, aged 68, was detained on February 19 in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica. He has been placed in extradition custody for 30 days. The other men are in Serbia and are protected by the Serbian constitution which doesn’t allow the country’s institutions to extradite its own citizens to other countries for war crimes prosecutions. Serbia officially never launched investigation for the Meja crimes, although it is considered the largest mass killing of the Albanian civilians in 1999 conflict. So far Serbian prosecution launched several cases for crimes committed towards Kosovo Albanians, namely in towns of Podujevo, village of Suva Reka and two cases related to the crimes committed in villages near the town of Pec.

 

Blair's Belgrade appointment shrouded in secrecy (SBS, by Kristina Kukolja & Biljana Ristic, 5 March 2015)

Mystery surrounds the appointment of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as a special advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic. Few details have emerged of what the role will involve. Towards the end of the Balkan conflict in the 1990s, Mr Blair was widely known for his support for NATO bombings of Serb forces. The Executive Producer of SBS Radio's Serbian language program, Biljana Ristic, told Kristina Kukolja, secrecy shrouds a series of recent visits by Tony Blair to the capital Belgrade.

 

EU Offers to Mediate in Macedonia's Wiretaps Row (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 5 March 2015)

Top European Union officials say Brussels is ready to mediate between feuding parties in Macedonia, voicing fears about the country's instability. The European Union is ready to arbitrate in the worsening dispute in Macedonia over claims of mass eavesdropping by the government, the EU's foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, and Enlargement Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, said in Brussels on Wednesday. "In these particular conditions, even more, it [help] is obviously needed", Mogherini said, adding that "Together with the Commissioner Hahn with whom our work in the Balkans is very much coordinated... for sure it [Macedonia] will stay on the agenda". Asked about the possible escalation of instability in Macedonia, Mogherini warned in a sombre tone: "I am afraid that the question is not if there is going to be instability." Hahn meanwhile said Brussels had showed "readiness to arbitrate between the different parties" and he believed Macedonia's main political players would accept this support. "We have offered our assistance to resolve the current crisis. I think both parties have to move. They have to respect rule of laws. They have to respect independence of the judiciary, freedom of media and they should look for having similar, or the same, political standards in terms of parliamentary work as is the case in other countries," Hahn said. "We will see what will be the next step. But, in order to keep this European perspective, it is indeed necessary to resolve problems in the country and to come back to adequate international European standards," the Commissioner added. The latest political conflict erupted on February 9 when the opposition Social Democrat leader, Zoran Zaev, alleged that the government had wiretapped over 20,000 people in the country of 2 million. Zaev said the eavesdropping had been orchestrated by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the secret police chief, Saso Mijalkov. Since then, the opposition has released further batches of tapped conversations, suggesting routine interference in the work of the courts, among other matters. Gruevski, who has been in power since 2006, has accused Zaev of collaborating with an unnamed foreign secret service to obtain the material. He has also accused Zaev of trying to use the material to blackmail state officials in order to grab power. His passport has been confiscated. Zaev has denied collaborating with foreign intelligence, insisting that all the material came from sources in Macedonia's own intelligence services. In Berlin, the Foreign Policy Commission of the German Bundestag discussed the wire-tapping affair on Wednesday. After the session, Klaus Braehmig, from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, CDU, told Deutsche Welle that the political situation in Macedonia was "increasingly unstable and unclear". He said: "Conflicts between the government and the opposition, the problematic interethnic coexistence between the Macedonians and Albanians and the restriction on the press freedoms give cause for great concern. "In addition, we receive reports of strong corrupt structures. These findings were presented during today’s meeting of the Foreign Policy Committee," Braehmig added, noting that such developments jeopardized Macedonia's prospects of EU integration. "Macedonia’s integration in the EU and NATO is endangered by the authoritarian course taken by the Macedonian government," he said.

"The EU progress reports clearly state that the country is not mature for accession. Domestic political reforms and democratization processes are needed," he concluded.

 

Hollande Statement On Halting NATO Enlargement Under Scrutiny (RFE/RL's Balkan Service and RFE/RL's Georgian Service, 4 March 2015)

A statement by French President Francois Hollande about temporarily halting NATO enlargement process is being reviewed in Montenegro and Georgia. Hollande said after his meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Paris on March 2 that "France's position for the moment is to refuse any new membership." Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic told reporters on March 4 that in his opinion, Hollande's statement was likely influenced by current efforts to resolve the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and concerns about antagonizing Russia, which has been critical of NATO expansion plans. Djukanovic added that the Montenegrin government will ask Paris for clarifications of the Hollande's statement. The NATO coordinator at the Montenegrin Foreign Ministry, Vesko Garcevic, told journalists on March 4 that his team had "carefully analyzed" the original transcript of Hollande's statement, and concluded that the statement "was given during a segment of the talks which focused on the European crisis" and therefore cannot be considered as a change in NATO's policies regarding new members. The secretary of the Atlantic Council of Montenegro, Savo Kentera, told RFE/RL on March 4 that he could "accept that one of the 28 member states may be blocking our membership bid, until we meet certain conditions." "This is uncontroversial, and perfectly legitimate. But if the key reason is to avoid offending Russia, at this moment, I cannot accept that as a reason," Kentera said. Meanwhile, a representative of Montenegro's New Serbian Democracy Party, Slaven Radunovic, told RFE/RL that Hollande's statement was "good news" for Montenegro, adding that "it removes from discussion an issue on which the citizens of Montenegro do not agree with their government." The majority of ethnic Serbs in Montenegro, who make almost 29 percent of the country's population of 650,000, oppose the government’s aspirations to join NATO. In Georgia, which has also been working on closer ties and integration into EU and NATO structures, Hollande's statement has been discussed by the media as well. Answering a journalist's question regarding Hollande's remarks, U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Richard Norland said in Tbilisi on March 4: "I am not going to comment specifically on the statement by the leader of a NATO country. I think the important thing is for Georgia to do everything it can to enhance its qualifications for NATO membership."

 

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Media summaries are produced for the internal use of the United Nations Office in Belgrade, UNMIK and UNHQ. The contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership.