Kosovo issue to be transferred onto legal terrain
Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Friday that at the forthcoming UN General Assembly, he would try to ensure support in the international community for Serbia's initiative that the Kosovo issue be transferred from the terrain of politics to the terrain of law.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, September 19, 2008
"So far, we have been given the support of certain permanent member countries of the Security Council and some members of the UN General Assembly, but it is obvious that we need broader support. This is why our initiative in which we require a legal opinion from the International Court of Justice and the resolution we will put forward at the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly for voting are of such great importance for the further course and the further process regarding the definition of the future status of Kosovo," President Tadic said ahead of his departure for New York, where he will take part in the UN General Assembly session.
The Serbian president explained that it would be very good if the Kosovo issue was transferred from the political onto the legal terrain, since Serbia's greatest strength lay in argumentation in the field of international law.
"In this way, we could find new possibilities and capacities to start negotiations, and on the other hand, new potentials would also be created for making some other countries, which do not support us now as far as Kosovo is concerned, take our side as well, and for making them take a more flexible, if not the best possible, stand when it comes to the interests of the state of Serbia," President Tadic said.
While in New York, Tadic will meet with more than 30 heads of the delegations that would take part in the UN General Assembly session.
Meanwhile, Slovak Foreign Minister Jan Kubis said Serbia had the right to file the request.
"We believe that it is the right of every country to file a request asking for the opinion of the ICJ," he said.
"At the same time, Slovakia's support for Serbia is well known, but we are also in favor of the EU having a united position, and we will work within this framework," Kubis said.
"There is still no united position in the EU regarding Serbia's initiative, we just started talks in Monday within the Council of Ministers, and now we are working on it, and the decision will be taken at a meeting of foreign ministers in New York in about 10 days," the minister explained.
