Kurti talks about recognition of so-called Kosovo ahead of dialogue continuation in Brussels

Photo: Tanjug/AP/Visar Kryeziu

The prime minister of the Provisional Institutions in Pristina, Albin Kurti, said on Tuesday that it would be good for Serbia to recognize Kosovo, but that he has no intention of paying for it either with territory or functionality, of, as he put it, the state of Kosovo.

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In an interview with EWB, Kurti said that Kosovo must continue to live if Belgrade does not want to recognize it and that it will not allow itself to depend on Serbia again for some reason.

"Of course, I would prefer Serbia to recognize Kosovo, but if Serbia does not want that, we must continue to live without that recognition. I don't plan to replace Kosovo's past dependence on Serbia with a new dependence on Serbia's recognition of our independent state," said Kurti and added that Kosovo has been living without Serbia's recognition for 13 years.

Kurti reiterated the claim that Kosovo is independent and stated that it was recognized by 26 out of 30 NATO countries, and 22 out of 27 EU member states.

In the UN Security Council, russia and China do not recognize us, but the United States, France and Great Britain do, he said.

"We will have to continue," Kurti said when the journalist said that at the beginning of his term he focused on internal issues such as the fight against corruption and said that the dialogue is not among his priorities, as well as when asked whether, having in mind everything he has said, he believed it was sustainable for Kosovo to stop the dialogue altogether and focus only on its own development.

The dialogue to continue in Brussels on July 19

EU spokesman Peter Stano announced yesterday a new round of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, saying that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and a representative of the provisional Pristina institutions, Albin Kurti, should meet on July 19 in Brussels.

Stano said that this meeting will continue the talks as part of the dialogue dedicated to normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

"The high-level meeting within the dialogue will be focused on the discussion on the achieved progress and the next steps in the dialogue, which is very important for the European perspective of Kosovo and Serbia," said Stano.

The dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, that is being held in Brussels, started in 2011.

(Telegraf.rs)