Dacic: Serbia's position is crystal clear, Kosovo recognition is unacceptable

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic says that Belgrade's position in the dialogue with Pristina is "crystal clear", stating that there are no further talks until the Brussels Agreement is fulfilled and that Kosovo's membership in international organizations and international recognition are unacceptable, Danas writes.

Dacic told Euronews Serbia at the Munich Security Conference, after the panel on the Western Balkans, which was closed to the public, that he told the participants that Serbia wants peace, but that it was especially irritating when everyone talked about the principle of territorial integrity, and no one thought about Serbia.

He said he repeated at the panel that it was not a new topic and that it had been discussed ten years ago at the Munich and similar conferences, and that he had participated on behalf of Serbia "in a European project called the Brussels Agreement."

"(Hashim) Thaci and I signed that (Brussels) agreement, under pressure from Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton and Catherine Ashton and the entire EU, and 11 years later, we have (Albin) Kurti saying that he is not interested in it. What kind of EU integrity are you talking about here? And what can the participants of all these talks expect if you treat the Brussels Agreement like this," Dacic said.

Asked what Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic meant when he said that Serbia had found greater understanding, Dacic said that it implied that everyone knew what Serbia wanted and that they had heard from foreign representatives that they knew what Serbia's positions or some red lines were, in other words, unacceptable things.

"However, we think Kurti will never go with the CSM formation. Thereby, we get that desire and pressure already at the start for someone to tell us: 'Okay, why do you insist that it should be now, it will be during the implementation'. So this is something that the president clearly said and meant – that there is an understanding and that even the European Council concluded that it must be fulfilled," Dacic said.

Speaking about the impact of the war in Ukraine on Serbia's position, Dacic said that he was present at today's meeting between President Vucic and Josep Borrell and that "they really become very unpleasant when they talk about asking Serbia to join the sanctions, that is, to adjust its foreign policy with the EU."

"We are trying so that nobody drags us into that crisis, and that is why I think it is good that I immediately called the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Moldova and asked that the President (Maja Sandu) contact President Vucic so that we would not unnecessarily create some conflicts that have nothing to do with us, and regarding those suspicions that some people from Serbia are participating in actions against the Moldovan authorities at the account of Russia," Dacic said.