Selakovic: U.N. Security Council Session Important for Presenting Stance on Kosovo

Nikola Selakovic(BETAPHOTO/MINISTARSTVO SPOLJNIH POSLOVA SRBIJE/Cedomir Petaric/DS)

Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic said on April 14 that it would not have benefited Serbia if the April 13 online session of the U.N. Security Council had been suspended due to a display of Kosovo symbols because "it is in Serbia's interest for the topic of Kosovo and Metohija to be discussed."

"It is in our interest to discuss Kosovo and Metohija as much as possible in the U.N. It is one of the rare opportunities when Serbia's position can be heard 'urbi at orbi' and I took that opportunity. The session could have been suspended, but that would not have benefited us. We endured what they call state symbols, the important thing is what was said at the session," Selakovic told Pink TV.

The U.N. Security Council on April 13 reviewed the latest six-month report on UNMIK, while the session transmission was briefly interrupted at the very start, when Russian representative Dmitry Polyanskiy asked that the Pristina representative change or remove the Kosovo flag, saying that "Kosovo is not a widely recognized state." Selakovic voiced the hope that the next U.N. Security Council meeting would take place in New York, where there would be no such problems.

Regarding a statement by Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic on "the awakening of Serbian caveman nationalism," Selakovic said that Djukanovic's problem was that he denied the existence of the Serbian people in Montenegro, adding that according to the census Serbs accounted for 29 percent of the Montenegrin population.