Foreign Minister calls countries not to recognize Kosovo

Tanjug / Dimitrije Goll

Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic wants more countries to withdraw their recognition of Kosovo as an independent state.

Foreign Minister Dacic said he is investing efforts to bring the number of countries which have recognized Kosovo down to less than 100.  

The authorities in Belgrade and Pristina have been engaged in an ongoing dispute over the number of countries which have recognized Kosovo. Dacic has convinced some countries to withdraw their recognition of Kosovo as an independent state.

Dacic told Belgrade daily newspaper Politika that he has formed a team which will focus on that issue which he sees as a priority in Serbia’s foreign policy.

Asked if Kosovo could become a UN member, the Foreign Minister said that would mean that Belgrade would have to tell Moscow and Beijing not to vote against it. “Can you imagine me doing that? Telling [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov and my Chinese colleague that I was just joking,” Dacic said, adding that Kosovo can be a UN member only if Serbia allows it.