The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov said that the European Union must be impartial in its role as mediator in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.
He made the statement after a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on Tuesday.
“Our position is unchanged. We are committed to seeking a compromise based on United Nations (UN) Resolution 1244, and we will only support a decision that suits Serbia,” Lavrov said, Radio Free Europe reports.
Lavrov also talked to the Serbian Foreign Minister, Nikola Selakovic about the dialogue.
He said that it is a bad thing the European Union can not influence the fulfilment of the agreements reached earlier, in the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, first of all for establishing the Association of Serb- majority municipalities in Kosovo.
“We believe that such an attitude shows the powerlessness towards Pristina’s actions and we still call on the EU to fully understand the responsibility for fulfilling what was agreed with its mediation,” Lavrov said.
Association of Serb Municipalities is a topic hindering the dialogue process on the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
Selakovic and Lavrov signed the foreign affairs plan of the two countries for 2021/2022.
“Cooperation between our two countries and diplomacy is at an extremely high level and the number of areas in which that cooperation exists is developing especially after the historic visit of Vladimir Putin (President of Russia) in January 2019,” Selakovic said.
Serbia maintains close ties with Russia but also aims to join the European Union.
Lavrov visited Serbia after Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia’s Muslim and Croat representatives in the country’s three-member presidency boycotted a meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister, accusing him of “disrespect” towards their state.
The two men argued that Lavrov should have started his official visit on Monday in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, instead of in the Serb semi-autonomous half of the country. No Bosnian flag was present and the Russian foreign minister also hailed Dodik’s comments that Bosnia will remain militarily neutral and will never join NATO, Euronews reports.
