Tadic: The text of the resolution cannot be changed
Serbian President Boris Tadic said in New York on Thursday that Serbia found as unacceptable the initiatives for a modification of the text of the resolution which sought, via the UN General Assembly, an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legality of Kosovo’s unilateral independence declaration.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, September 26, 2008
After a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Tadic told journalists in New York that Ban had showed an understanding for the efforts Serbia was making in its fight for the preservation of the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In the talks, Tadic reiterated that Serbia did not accept the illegal independence of Kosovo and that it would defend its position in a peaceful and diplomatic manner.
"We find as obvious that this kind of a summit of all states implies the possibility that those who oppose our initiative and the defence of our integrity may want to make additional pressure on certain countries to recognize Kosovo's illegally proclaimed independence so as to reduce the power of our resolution and hinder Serbia's diplomatic fight", Tadic said.
President Tadic also reiterated that Serbia would find as "completely unacceptable and impossible to comprehend" the possibility that certain countries in the region recognized Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence, and noted that great pressure was being made on Montenegro and Macedonia, but also on Portugal, to recognize the secession of the southern Serbian province.
The other countries on the European territory, both the ones that are members of the European Union and those that are not, do not seem to have any problem with their position not to recognize Kosovo independence, and this is good news, the Serbian president said, adding however, that all those countries were exposed to huge pressure.
"We are doing all we can to persuade the representatives of these countries and our neighbouring countries to resist the pressure", Tadic said.
He also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"As the president of Serbia, I find as particularly important Russia's unequivocal support for our initiative regarding the resolution by which we seek an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice", Tadic said after the meeting.
"There is complete accord between Belgrade and Moscow", he added, noting that the two countries shared a common stand in respect to the further path that would lead to a solution to the future Kosovo status.
