Eurasia Press & News
The United States has called on European countries to be united and support the ICJ ruling, “which said Kosovo’s independence was legal”.
The top UN court today gave its advisory opinion on the legality under international law of the Kosovo Albanian unilateral independence declaration, by finding that “since there are no active provisions that limit independence declarations” under international law, the proclamation itself was not in breach of it.
Washington said it welcomed the ruling.
“The International Court of Justice stressed firmly that the independence declaration of Kosovo was legal, which is a ruling we support,” said a White House spokesperson, and called on Europe to “now be united and stand behind a joint future”.
Five out of EU’s 27 member-states have not recognized Kosovo, Slovakia being one of them.
In reaction to the news out of The Hague today, that country’s Defense Minister Lubomir Galko told reporters in Bratislava that the ICJ ruling “changed nothing” regarding its position on Kosovo.
“Slovakia’s position remains unchanged. The Republic of Slovakia still does not recognize the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo,” Galko said as he met with his Czech counterpart.
Slovakia previously adopted a parliamentary resolution that says it could only recognize Kosovo if Serbia also “voluntarily did so”. An ethnic Hungarian party that was the only not to support the resolution no longer has any seats in the country’s parliament.
