Trump’s Love For Deals Risks Destabilizing Borders In The Western Balkans (BuzzFeed)
Serbia and Kosovo are talking about redrawing their borders. Major European capitals are opposed and the US used to be too — but things have changed under Trump.
Serbia and Kosovo are talking about redrawing their borders. Major European capitals are opposed and the US used to be too — but things have changed under Trump.
If Kosovo would get a seat in the UN, even status of an observer, their need to talk to us about anything would immediately cease, leader of Leftist Serbia and former Belgrade chief negotiator in the Brussels talks, Borko Stefanovic told FoNet news agency.
From that moment onwards, Kosovo could do whatever it wants, since it would become de facto and de jure independent state, Stefanovic added. He also assessed it would be a great humiliation for Serbia, as it would need to ask Russia and China not to block Kosovo membership in the UN.
Director of the Information Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Maria Zakharova told RTS this morning that Russia's attitude towards Kosovo is consistent and strict. This attitude is built on three components - the international legal basis of what is happening in Kosovo, respect for the sovereignty of Serbia, independence and internal Serbian legislation, and understanding the interests of the people and Serbia as a state, Zakharova stressed.
Abbot Sava Janjic today spoke about assassinated leader of Civic Initiative Freedom, Democracy, Justice, (GI SDP) Oliver Ivanovic, B92 reports.
“A man who did not measure Kosovo and Metohija by meters and percentages, who fought for the people, and not for his personal interest, who was heinously killed from a back, speaks today louder than ever before, distorting those who have hunted him, a man who did not spread defeatism, but hope – Oliver Ivanovic,” Abbot of Visoki Decani Sava Janjic wrote on Facebook.
President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, in an interview to Belgrade-based daily Blic spoke, inter alia, about the issue of Kosovo.
Q: The issue of Kosovo and its solution are in the focus again. How do you look at what is happening now?
Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic says all those who are now saying that there can be no change of borders should be ashamed of themselves.
Dacic said he had in mind "those who knocked down our border and opened Pandora's box" - referring to the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo, a province of Serbia.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says Moscow does not support "delimitation" as the solution to the Kosovo problem.
The idea was floated earlier by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, while President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday revealed this was "his policy" on the issue.
Asked about the position of Russia in terms of demarcation, Zaharova responded by asking: "You will not have a problem with that?"
Radomir Laban, who escaped central Serbia to avoid going to jail on a corruption conviction, has been named a judge of the Kosovo Constitutional Court.
As we said it on time, delineation is in fact a defeatist division of de jure Serbian territory on ethnic principle – the North of Kosovo for Presevo and Bujanovac. Masks have fallen, let them justify themselves before people and history, if they can, Abbot Sava Janjic wrote on Twitter.
Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) said today that President Aleksandar Vucic with a statement “that he pledges for delineation with Albanians,” and “it is the politics he represent” is acting contrary to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, since it envisages changes of Serbian borders and renouncing part of its territory to the benefit of Kosovo secessionists, Danas daily reported.