LITHUANIA INVITES SERBIA TO SEEK A COMPROMISE IN NEGOTIATIONS ON THE STATUS OF KOSOVO
On 27-28 August during the official visit to Serbia Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas encouraged Serbia to enter into negotiations on the status of Kosovo constructively and seek for a compromise. “Lithuania supports the resumed negotiations on the status of Kosovo between Belgrade and Priština, which are mediated by the European Union, the USA and Russia. We expect that the compromise on Kosovo’s future will have been reached by December of this year,” said the Head of Lithuanian diplomacy during the meeting with Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremić.
According to P.Vaitiekūnas, Serbia should be interested to solve the issue of Kosovo as soon as possible.
“The solution regarding the status of Kosovo would allow faster integration of Serbia into the EU,” said Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs P.Vaitiekūnas.
During the meetings with President of Serbia Boris Tadić, Prime Minister of Serbia Vojislav Koštunica and the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integrations Božidar Đelić, P.Vaitiekūnas spoke in support of Serbian aspiration for integration into the EU and NATO and emphasized the need to pursue necessary reforms, including the cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Minister invited Serbia to identify areas, where Serbia would derive benefit form Lithuania’s experience of integration into the EU.
The issues of bilateral cooperation encouragement, Lithuania’s ambition of presiding over the OSCE, priorities of Serbian presidency over the Council of Europe and the situation in the Western Balkan region were also discussed during the meetings.
