RUSSIA TO BACK SERBIA IN UN KOSOVO HEARINGS – LAVROV
RIA Novosti
Oct 5, 2009
MOSCOW, October 5 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will support Serbia’s case
in UN court hearings on the legitimacy of Kosovo’s declaration of
independence, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
A total of 62 countries, including major Western powers, have
recognized the independence of Serbia’s ethnic-Albanian-dominated
province, which was declared in February 2008. The rest of the world,
including Russia, China and India, considers Kosovo to be part
of Serbia.
"We will insist that international law and UN Security Council
decisions be respected and any unilateral decisions running counter
to the UN Charter and OSCE principles be avoided," Lavrov said after
talks in Moscow with his Serbian counterpart, Vuk Jeremic.
Serbia brought the case to the UN’s Hague-based International Court
of Justice for an advisory opinion on Kosovo’s unilaterally declared
independence.
The hearings will begin on December 1 and will involve the five
permanent Security Council members – Russia and China on Serbia’s side
and the United States, Britain and France supporting Kosovo. Other
countries have filed written statements on the case.
Kosovo, Serbia’s historic heartland, was administered by the United
Nations after the Kosovo war and the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
In August 2008, Russia recognized Georgia’s breakaway republics
Abkhazia and South Ossetia following a brief war with the ex-Soviet
Caucasus state triggered by its offensive against Ossetia. The move was
seen by many as influenced by Western nations’ recognition of Kosovo.