Serbian government successful in achieving its foreign policy priorities

Belgrade, March, 24. 2010 (Serbia Today) – Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic stated today that the Serbian government does not accept Kosovo's statehood nor the centralization of Bosnia-Herzegovina contrary to the will of the people and entities and that Serbia is a militarily neutral country. Jeremic, who gave a lecture at the Megatrend University in Belgrade today, stressed that economic diplomacy this year became the fourth foreign policy priority of Serbia, alongside Kosovo-Metohija, Europe and good neighborly relations. In the 21st century the state should be a much more important economic player than it had been in the period before the economic crisis, he said. One of the changes in international relations is linked to the changes in economic relations and the way international economic exchange is taking place, explained the Minister.

In 2009 the Serbian government was quite successful when it comes to achieving results related to foreign policy and foreign policy priorities, he said. We managed to question the issue of the future status of Kosovo-Metohija and to make it relative in a way that hardly anyone could have expected at the time of the unilateral declaration of independence, said the Minister. The Serbian Foreign Minister pointed out that the number of countries that recognized Kosovo is far below the number than anyone had predicted, which is a result of thoroughly prepared, organized and energetic actions of Serbian state bodies. Jeremic recalled that Serbia opened the issue of Kosovo-Metohija before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague and this is the first time in the history that legality of a unilateral declaration of independence is being examined before this court. He said that the Serbian government’s central strategic priority is EU membership and added that the last year has been the most successful so far in terms of the country’s European integration. That can be seen by the abolishment of visas, unfreezing of the Interim trade agreement and the fact that the European Commission has made the best report so far on Serbia’s progress in European integration. Serbia has good neighborly relations, although a certain number of analysts and “strong voices” in the world see the Balkans through the perspective of the 1990´s. That is a serious challenge the Serbian leadership is facing. Those people say that there are three problems in the Balkans: Kosovo, which should be supported so that circumstances could be stabilized, the second is Bosnia-Herzegovina, which should be centralized, and they also suggest that all Western Balkan states join NATO. We cannot accept Kosovo’s statehood, nor centralization of Bosnia-Herzegovina against the will of people and entities, Jeremic said. Speaking about classification into safety blocks, Serbia has decided in a democratic way to be militarily independent, Jeremic said.