Kosovo remains internationally unrecognized decade after "independence": Serbian FM

Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 01:35:37|Editor: yan
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BELGRADE, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Declaration of Kosovo's independence is an unsuccessful experiment, and represents violence over Serbia, Serbs and the international law, said Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic on Saturday on the occasion of the 10th anniversary since the Serbian southern province unilaterally seceded.

Dacic held a press conference here in Belgrade after an official visit to Burundi and announced that the African country withdrew its recognition of Kosovo's independence two days ago, and stressed that he wanted to reveal this to the Serbians and wider public on the day when authorities in Pristina mark the date of their unilateral independence declaration, according to a government release.

He said that officials from Pristina persistently misinform the public that 116 countries have recognized their independence, because they add to this number "those countries that did not recognize Kosovo, those that are not members of the United Nations (UN), as well as those that withdrew their recognition".

Dacic estimated that three recent cases of withdrawal of recognition of Kosovo show that this issue cannot be solved in any other way except through negotiations with Serbia, illustrating that in ten years Kosovo did not succeed in becoming a member of UN, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) nor the Council of Europe.

"Despite all the support Kosovo has among western powers, it is far from being internationally recognized," Dacic said.

He continued that Serbia will in the future endure in the struggle to achieve national and state interests, noting that the joint position of the EU expressed in a recently adopted strategy for integration of Western Balkans does not specify that Serbia must recognize Kosovo in order to become a part of the EU.

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