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Dacic: Number of states recognizing Kosovo will fall under 100 (Politika,Tanjug, B92)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has told Politika that he can guarantee the number of countries that recognize Kosovo will fall under 100.

Dacic told the Belgrade-based newspaper over the weekend that this was his priority - and that it would help President Aleksandar Vucic, because his discussions about Kosovo would no longer proceed from "everything being a done deal".

Instead, the minister continued, Vucic will be able to say, "wait - in the last three months five countries revoked their recognition."

"Perhaps in half a year, for example, it will be under 100. And what happens when it falls under 96 countries?," Dacic said.

Asked whether there was a realistic chance of this happening, he replied: "I guarantee it."

Asked about the time frame for this, he replied: "If only I had the time. I can't manage to deal with all those things, I can't manage to visit everyone."

Dacic said that attention should be paid to representatives of the countries that might revoke their recognition of Kosovo, and that other ministries in the Serbian government should be doing it, too, in order to avoid "somebody refusing to receive a minister I'm talking to - but they would receive a minister from a large European country."

In that sense, he added, Serbia's diplomatic network should also be discussed.

Dacic told the daily that he had been the first to start working on revocations of Kosovo recognitions, and that this was the reason he was traveling to Africa and Asia often - and the reason Pristina officials are complaining about him.

"Since they (Pristina) find it terribly irritating, I formed a team here to deal exclusively with that issue. To me, this is the priority of our political activity," the head of Serbia's diplomacy stressed.

See at: https://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2018&mm=04&dd=16&nav_id=103943