Starovic: Now the ball is in Pristina's court, it must implement what it has signed

Nemanja Starovic, State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense, said that Pristina is not ready to fulfill the necessary prerequisite for us to be able to talk about some kind of path towards a new framework agreement, which is the formation of the ZSO (Community of Serb Municipalities).

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic and the representative of the provisional institutions of Pristina, Albin Kurti, have confirmed that they will meet in Ohrid on March 18 as part of the EU-mediated dialogue, the European Service for External Affairs announced.

Starovic told RTS that there will be no capitulation, despite the difficult circumstances and pressure, Serbia and the president will not cross the two red lines.

According to him, one is the issue of so-called mutual recognition, which is a meaningless platitude, which means the desired obligation of Serbia to agree to the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo and Metohija, and the second red line is the desired agreement of Serbia to Pristina's membership in the UN.

He stressed that yesterday President Vucic sent important messages to the citizens regarding the geopolitical circumstances, bearing in mind the environment we are in - which is significantly different from ten years ago, and the war in Ukraine is additionally unfavorable for all of us, so we must adapt our approach to those not at all favorable circumstances.

Speaking about Miroslav Lajcak's visit to Pristina, Starovic says that we must understand the EU envoy's position, which implies a kind of need to broadcast official optimism in the function of the work he is doing.

"There has been no key progress, Pristina is not ready to fulfill the necessary precondition for us to be able to talk about some kind of path towards a new framework agreement, we are talking about the formation of the ZSO", says Starovic.

Yesterday there was a message that Washington wants a quick finalization, but it is not possible to determine a specific time frame.

"The ZSO is not the only statement and need that arises from the interests of the Serb people, but it is an important mechanism for the realization of collective rights. When we talk about all the problems in the field of security, the conditions would be better if the ZSO had already been formed," said Starovic.

In addition to all this, there is another important dimension - the issue of the ZSO speaks to whether the negotiation process has credibility, said the state secretary.

"There is disinformation, this phase means that there are discussions about the implementation plan, without determining the implementation plan there is no agreement, the implementation plan can only be agreed if the ZSO represents the zero point. That is Serbia's position," Starovic pointed out.

According to him, now the ball is in Pristina's court, it must implement what it has signed.

It would not be good if we made Kurti's job easier by implementing the wrong tactics, said Starovic.

There is gradation, at the heart of the problem are fundamental values, the spirit of the people, at a higher level are interests, preserving our territorial integrity, from this comes strategy and then come the moves. Tactics and strategy are often mixed up, Starovic underlined.

"Serbia is persisting on its course concerning the war in Ukraine, which is to support territorial integrity, we do not want to position ourselves as a party in a war," he said.

Serbia is the only European country that has not joined anti-Russia sanctions, because of Russia's support, such as blocking the 2015 (UN) resolution, which sought to declare Serbs a genocidal nation, Starovic recalled.

Whenever the war ends, the role of Serbia will be needed in order for international relations to return to normal, added Starovic.

Speaking about the position of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, Starovic said that the life of Serbs has been difficult since 1999, there has been an increase in violence against them, and he reiterated that Serbs would be better protected if the ZSO had already been formed.

(Telegraf.rs)