Brankovic: Declaration from the Ukraine Summit refers to international law, where are these rules when it comes to Kosovo?

The Declaration from the latest Ukraine Summit shows that everyone is once again referring to the UN Charter and international law, which is positive, diplomat and former ambassador to the UN Branko Brankovic says for Kosovo Online. However, he emphasizes that there are many deviations from this, especially concerning Kosovo.

In his opinion, the Summit itself is very significant because it involved over a hundred delegations, indicating a matured perspective of 'enough with conflicts, let's think about how to stop them.'

Although this is the first and most significant step, he adds that it was not expected to bring fantastic decisions because, above all, "they cannot make decisions without an agreement together with Russia."

He describes the declaration adopted at the Summit as "grand" and a copy of some rules from the UN Charter, relying on international law – overall, "quite general and declarative."

"But the fact is that it is now re-emerging because many have criticized the UN and the Charter for inefficiency in recent years, and now everyone is referring to it again. The only thing that can be criticized is – where were all these rules, international law, and charters when they bombed us? Where were all these rules, and where are they today concerning what is happening in Kosovo and Metohija? That whole segment has completely failed," Brankovic assesses.

He points out that there is a lot of talk about what Kurti is doing, but he believes that "Kurti is not his own man and decides nothing."

"It is known who is behind him. Now, if those who are behind Kurti were very active at this meeting, spoke, and signed all this regarding international law, we have the right to call them out, 'ladies and gentlemen, apply it to everything, not just partially to what suits you,'" our interlocutor says.

When asked if the involvement of other actors in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, such as Russia or China, is important, Brankovic responds that Serbia has Resolution 1244, "which is the alpha and omega of everything that should happen in Kosovo and Metohija," so everything related to Kosovo must be guided by that document.

He recalls that Serbia recently requested, in accordance with Resolution 1244, the return of Serbian forces to Kosovo, but KFOR's response was that the time was not yet ripe for such a thing.

"Since then, we have stopped, but I would make the same request every month and send it to KFOR for about two months. If they still do not respond, I would send what we sent to KFOR to the UN Secretary-General and the entire UN Security Council. If they ignore it for two or three months, then we should request, through Russia and China, a session of the UN Security Council with the sole agenda item: Report of the UN Secretary-General on the implementation of Resolution 1244. And he cannot say anything about the implementation. Therefore, we need to show some dynamic in all this because 1244 is there, we have the right under 1244, so let's keep pressing," Brankovic concludes.