UNESCO: Struggle for abstained votes (Vecernje Novosti)
In the next twenty days Serbia will engage all its diplomatic capacities aimed at winning as more as possible states at UNESCO General Conference against Kosovo’s membership in that organization, along with winning those who abstained from voting at the UNESCO Executive Council. The option of requesting a postponement of the decision is also at the table.
Following the decision of the UNESCO Executive Council to support the proposal for Kosovo’s membership in the organization, final decision is due to be made at the UNESCO General Conference, which is set to take place in early November. Belgrade estimates that there are realistic chances for Pristina ‘hitting the wall’ there.
Calculation says that if, like at the Executive Council, a quarter of 195 states would abstain at the General Conference, 50 hands against would be sufficient for rejecting the proposal considering that two-thirds majority is required for adoption of the proposal. The problematic fact for Serbia is that many states that didn’t recognize Kosovo have abstained, like Algeria, Indonesia or Uganda, thus lobbying of its officials should foremost focus on such states.