Dacic and Mrkic to attend UNSC session on Kosovo

Dacic and Mrkic travelled from Brussels to New York Thursday morning, the Serbian Foreign Ministry said in a release. The UNSC meeting was originally supposed to be held on February 22, but was postponed by a month to allow the EU-mediated dialogue between Belgrade and Serbia to continue. In his last quarterly report on Kosovo, Ban Ki-moon said that significant progress had been made by elevating the talks between Belgrade and Pristina dialogue to a higher, political level. At the same time he called on the Kosovo government to respond decisively to any acts of intolerance against Serbs, noting incidents that occurred during Orthodox Christmas celebrations in Kosovo on January 7. Although there are still many difficult issues to resolve, the UN secretary general said, the continued dialogue is "a strong signal of commitment of both sides to peaceful dialogue and overcoming the burdens of the past conflict." When it comes to the situation in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, Ban said "coordinated action and attention are needed to ensure that the difficult issues are addressed in good faith to avert future tensions." The UN Secretary-General noted that alongside the high level political process, sustained efforts to promote reconciliation and increase trust among the communities in Kosovo are also important. The seventh round of the Brussels-based dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina ended late Tuesday without agreement, but Dacic, Kosovo Prime Minister Hasim Taci and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton all believe that certain progress was indeed made and that the continuation of the dialogue, scheduled for April 2, can be expected with optimism.