Starović: We fight for the preservation of territorial integrity exclusively by political means

“When faced with numerous challenges also concerning the preservation of territorial integrity, we decided to fight in this field exclusively with political and legal means,” Starović said on Kurir Television.

Starović noted that Minister Selaković visited Cuba, Colombia and Costa Rica as part of his Latin American tour, and that he would visit Venezuela, another Serbia's traditional friend.

The State Secretary of the MFA said that, unfortunately, Costa Rica was the first country to recognise the so-called Kosovo, which was quite unfavourable act for Serbia and its vital national interests.

“Minister Selaković is the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia to visit that country. The fact that we did not have adequate communication resulted, among other things, in such acts. For this reason it is important to intensify such communication, to talk and present our views, without much hope that there will be a major 180-degree reversal. When we talk to the countries that have decided to recognise the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo in the previous 14 years, there is always a chance that we at least calibrate and influence their views to a certain extent, if we cannot change them,” Starović said.

According to him, there is a whole range of different positions that the recognising states take in international organisations.

Starović stated that Egypt officially froze the recognition of the so-called Kosovo and it never votes for Priština's accession to membership in international organisations, and certain countries refused to accept Priština's membership in UNESCO and Interpol at key moments, not only Egypt, but also other important countries such as Poland, Japan and South Korea.

“It is important for us that, when presenting our positions and arguments, even those states that have recognised the so-called Kosovo do not give active or strong support to Priština in international organisations and balance their positions to some extent,” said Starović.

When asked about the continuation of the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština in Brussels on 18 August, Starović said that it was important that the dialogue existed at least as a formula, but that it was difficult to be optimistic, bearing in mind the established behaviour pattern of Albin Kurti based on unilateral moves, unilateral implementation of technical agreements and arbitrary interpretation of the agreements.

“With such experience, I fear that even in the context of the continuation of the dialogue on 18 August, even in the best possible scenario that either further delays or modifications of the measures are agreed, Kurti will only look for a second, third or fourth reason sufficient to re-escalate the situation on the field. It may not be regarding the issue of registration plates or ID cards, but they will look for some other opportunity," said Starović.

The State Secretary of the MFA emphasised that Serbia must therefore clarify how insane and far from the truth that concept was, and it must ask its international partners, primarily from the political West, not to buy that story and not to allow a man like Albin Kurti to ignite the Balkan Peninsula.