Serbian Delegation Walks Out of Regional Defense Meeting

Council of Europe (Photo: Council of Europe/Candice Imbert)

On June 12, the delegation of Serbia walked out of a meeting of South-East European parliamentary defense and security committees because a member of the Croatian delegation, Zdravka Busic, stated that Kosovo will be accepted into the Council of Europe, SRNA has reported.

Joining the departing delegation from Serbia was Radovan Kovacevic, the chair of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian Joint Committee for Defense and Security and a member of Milorad Dodik’s Alliance of Independent Social Democrats.

A member of Kosovo’s ruling Self-Determination Movement, Arber Rexhaj, previously accused the Serbian delegation of attempting to prevent Kosovo representatives from speaking at the gathering by pounding on the tables and turning off microphones.

“The representatives of Serbia again tried to interrupt our speeches by pounding their fists on the tables and turning off our microphones, like true thugs. Still, they didn’t manage to stop the speeches of Kosovo’s representatives, who openly stated that Kosovo is an internationally recognized country, ratified by the International Court of Justice, and that the attack in Banjska proves that Serbia is just as it was during the reign of Slobodan Milosevic,” Rexhaj said, referencing the September 2023 clash between armed Serbs and Kosovo police in the village of Banjska.

Kovacevic denied Rexhaj’s claims countering that it was a representative from Albania who “persistently pressed [his] microphone in an attempt to shut down the microphones of the MPs from Serbia,” leading Kovacevic to ask the technical staff for support.