Serbian FM Says Belgrade for a Compromise Solution for Kosovo

Ivica Dacic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/MO)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic in Budapest on Jan. 10 said that Serbia was strongly committed to preserving peace and stability in Kosovo and wanted a political agreement on open issues.   

“We believe that the issue of Kosovo can be resolved only through a compromise solution and we are very sensitive to the policy of double standards in relation to territorial integrity. Territorial integrity is either a principle, or not. One cannot support territorial integrity in one case and in another case say – well, it can be done differently,” Dacic told a joint news conference with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto.  

Dacic also said that Belgrade had three red lines in relation to Kosovo. Firstly, everything signed must be implemented, secondly, Belgrade could not recognize Kosovo’s independence and accept Kosovo’s membership in the UN, and the third red line was security of the Serbs in Kosovo.  

Speaking about relations between Serbia and Hungary, Dacic said that they had reached the highest level in the past decade and were based on mutual trust, cooperation, joint interests, and mutual respect, including respect of the rights of national minorities – the Hungarians in Serbia and the Serbs in Hungary.  

After meeting Prime Minister Viktor Orban he said that the basic message that Hungarian officials had for him was that Serbia and Hungary needed to stick together and jointly seek solutions to current political and foreign political questions but also various economic, energy and other questions.

He said that he and Orban discussed a new trilateral meeting with Austria on fighting illegal migrations and a session of the Serbian and Hungarian governments which  he said would be held in the first half of the year. He said that Orban and Szijjarto told him that Hungary would vote against admitting Kosovo into European international organizations.