Eurasia Press & News
Vuk Jeremić said that Serbia was ready for dialogue with Priština and that “it would be better for everybody if the process started as soon as possible”.
“As far as we are concerned it can begin right now. Officials from Brussels, who will play a mediator role, are also ready,” Serbian FM Vuk Jeremić said.
“I understand this maybe isn’t the best moment for (ethnic) Albanians, bearing in mind their political turmoil but I believe that it is better for everybody if that the process begins as soon as possible,” he stressed.
Jeremić said that the talks should begin with issues which were not controversial, such as establishment of cooperation regarding solving of missing persons issue.
“Achieving success at a very beginning would certainly have a positive effect on future phases of talks, when we reach more delicate things. In any case, negotiations should be led by experts and not high officials or politicians,” he explained.
The FM also pointed out that negotiations about the status do not need to be approached directly in order to find solutions for issues that stem from the fact that both sides have fundamentally different stand on Kosovo’s sovereignty.
“Our side will go from the fact that not a single practical solution can be such that implies direct or indirect recognition of unilaterally declared independence. It will be necessary for both sides to show constructiveness in order to reach compromise on all open issues,” Jeremić stressed.
He also said that Belgrade “certainly will not accept any solution that could be understood as recognition of independence and therefore defining Serbia and Kosovo as two sovereign states”.
Commenting on accusations of a part of the political public that it was his fault that the state was conducting a rigid policy toward Kosovo, Jeremić said: “I did the best I could and was as dedicated as I could be within the given parameters of the state policy. On that side, my conscience is clear. Whether my objective performance satisfactory is another issue”.
