No partition, exchange of territory, Kosovo president says

Source: Beta

PRIŠTINA -- Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga has stated that partition of Kosovo and exchange of territory are not good solutions.

Atifete Jahjaga

She told Priština-based Albanian language daily Kosova Sot that Kosovo would not discuss its internal issues with anyone.

Jahjaga stressed that she could not say whether Belgrade would request partition “although the parties in the dialogue do not have a mandate to do so”.

“We are not talking with anybody, especially not with Serbia as they say, about partition or exchange of territory. Those are not solutions and they will not contribute to stability and peace in the region. At the same time they do not represent a European perspective and they are not a good example either,” she was quoted as saying.

She assessed that partition of exchange of territories would not be good for continuation of the Belgrade-Priština talks.

“I don’t think that Belgrade and Priština have such mandate and I don’t think that the European mediator will accept the concept that belongs to past centuries and that can cause a chain reaction. If Belgrade opens the subject, taking into account the ethnic map, I don’t think that Serbia can remain with the current borders,” the Kosovo president stressed.

She stressed that the dialogue was important for both Serbia and Kosovo, their citizens and the entire region.

“I support and advocate for the success of the dialogue because that way we will overcome an unstable situation in some areas and normalize relations between the two countries,” Jahjaga pointed out.

When asked to comment on Serbian President Boris Tadić’s decision not to attend international meetings in Warsaw and Rome because Kosovo officials were there, the Kosovo president said that such decisions “represent a responsibility issue of the Serbian president himself before his people and country”.

“Every leader and his voters assess gain and damage of such moves. His actions have nothing to do with Kosovo or with my responsibilities as the country’s president,” she pointed out.

Jahjaga said that she had already been invited to the next Balkans mini-summit in Macedonia, in which representatives of Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania would take part.

“I am advocating that these countries form a mini-Schengen and other joint development programs in the field of tourism, education, culture and that way help each other on the European integrations path,” she concluded.