Serbia urges UN members not to recognize Kosovo

Serbian President Boris Tadic appealed on Saturday for the majority of UN countries who have not recognized Kosovo's independence to maintain that position during forthcoming talks between the neighbours.

Pressured by the European Union, which it aims to join, Serbia agreed this month to discuss practical issues with Kosovo. It also dropped a planned challenge in the United Nations to the status of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008.

Serbia lost control of Kosovo in 1999 when NATO waged a bombing campaign to halt killings of ethnic Albanians in a two-year counter-insurgency war, and it does not recognize the country's independence.   

"I want to underline that it is of critical importance for the UN member states that have not recognized Kosovo's UDI (unilateral declaration of independence) to stay the course on non-recognition over the course of the dialogue process," Tadic told the UN General Assembly.      

"This will be a significant contribution to ensuring that unilateral attempts to impose outcomes to ethnic and territorial disputes are not legitimized, thereby preventing Kosovo's UDI from becoming a dangerous and destabilizing precedent," he said.   

Some 70 of the 192 countries that are UN members have recognized Kosovo's independence.  

Serbia continues to see Kosovo as its cultural and spiritual heartland as well as part of its territory, but last month the World Court issued an advisory ruling that Kosovo''s 2008 declaration of independence was legal.

"We are now ready to talk and we will do so in good faith," Tadic said. "Soon the two parties will be talking to each other for the first time in many years." 

Kosovo, one of Europe's poorest countries with a population of 2 million, exports only roughly 10% of the value of its imports, though its lack of institutions and large black economy make statistics highly unreliable.

It would like to send its main exports, minerals, metals and farm produce, to the EU through Serbia's roads and railways.                                            Tadic also told the U.N. General Assembly that the greatest challenge facing Serbia and the Western Balkans was organized crime, which had been spurred by wars in the region.

"These criminals are bringing drugs, guns, human trafficking and corruption into our societies," he said. "In doing so, they are using our region to spread into Europe... it is a strategic issue that affects all of Europe."