"Kosovo is not a commodity Serbia trades with"

"It is not a commodity to be bought or sold, so it's not possible to negotiate at all from that position. That is the Serbian stance and it cannot be changed," says former diplomat Zoran Milivojevic

Former diplomat Zoran Milivojevic said on Sunday that the German-French proposal for solving the Kosovo and Metohija issue is absolutely unacceptable to Serbia, as well as all other variants of a solution that demand that our country recognizes Kosovo, or allows it to join the UN.

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In a statement to Tanjug, Milivojevic reacted to the German-French proposal - which Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic spoke about on Saturday in his address to the nation, which "offers" a promise of financial aid to Serbia in case it allows Pristina to gain a seat in the UN - to say that Kosovo is not an object of trading with money.

"It is not a commodity to be bought or sold, so it's not possible to negotiate at all from that position. That is the Serbian stance and it cannot be changed," Milivojevic said, Tanjug is reporting.

He stressed that if there is a sincere desire to solve the Kosovo and Metohija problem and to establish peace and stability in these areas on a realistic basis, then there is no reason to proceed from the assumption that Serbia could recognize Kosovo in any form, and adds that that this is true regardless of who is in power in Belgrade.

"When it comes to Serbia, the only offer of any side can be to continue the dialogue and seek solutions through political means based on the principle of compromise," says Milivojevic.

He explains that it is unacceptable for Serbia to recognize Kosovo or allow it a seat in the UN because Pristina would then have full international legal legitimacy, and that would be tantamount to its recognition by Belgrade.

"Recognition and renunciation of Kosovo in every way"

At the moment, Serbia is a member of the UN in a way which includes Kosovo and Metohija, and that is what UN Security Resolution 1244 says, the former diplomat stressed.

"If it comes to the point that it is proposed that we give Kosovo a seat in the UN and de facto, if not de jure, recognize Kosovo, it would mean that Serbia must revise its stance and position in the UN. We would have to give up that part of our territory and be a member state within some new borders, and that means recognizing Kosovo and renouncing it in every way," warns Milivojevic.

Therefore, recognition of Kosovo's international legal subjectivity would be the end of the story, regardless of the fact that Serbia did not do so directly, because our country could not be a member of the UN with the status and within the borders it has today.

When it comes to the promised accelerated accession to EU, Milivojevic believes that it is not realistic and that this offer, in principle, does not stand to scrutiny.

According to him, EU's enlargement policy has been relegated to the background, and this former diplomat believes that the EU will act politically toward candidate countries and non-members within the framework of the mechanism of the European political community that was just formed in Prague.

Besides, the EU is faced with a lot of internal problems, primarily economic ones due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, and in the coming period it will deal with searching for modalities and mechanisms for its continued survival.

No one even mentions chapters 23 and 24 anymore

Also, Milivojevic stressed that now, as far as the possible EU enlargement is concerned even if it were to happen, solutions that are purely geopolitical are now in the forefront.

"No one mentions Chapters 23 and 24 anymore, what's in the foreground is the stance towards Russia and sanctions against Russia, and number two is recognition of the reality when it comes to Kosovo and Metohija. Those criteria now come to the fore," says the former diplomat.

Asked whether, in his address to the nation, President Vucic, hinted at the possibility of imposing sanctions against Russia if our vital interests were to be threatened, Milivojevic replied that he did not get this impression.

He said that our stance towards sanctions is principled, we made a statement about Ukraine and clearly said that we respect international law, we did not accept the last four annexations, not even that of Crimea.

"Our state and national interest dictates that we do not impose sanctions against Russia. The most prominent reason is not energy, but the issue of Kosovo and Metohija, and I think that is getting even more important at this moment when we heard what the Paris-Berlin duo is asking of us and what they insist on," believes Milivojevic.

Also, he points out that President Vucic was right when he said that it was a big mistake when we accepted that the dialogue on Kosovo and Metohija should be transferred to under EU's auspices.

"Simply because we thereby made it impossible for the fight to be conducted based on international law in the Security Council and on Resolution 1244. There, the positions of Russia and China would have come to the fore more significantly and there could be no calculations as to what the final solution should be and what the status of Kosovo and Metohija should be," said the former diplomat.

(Telegraf.rs)