Kosovo challenges Serbia. Vučić urgently convenes the National Security Council

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic took the initiative to convene the National Security Council on May 13.

The reason was the submission by the self-proclaimed state of Kosovo and Metohija of an official request to join the Council of Europe, which the Serbian leadership regarded as Pristina’s destruction of the Washington Agreement signed in 2020.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

Vučić learned that the document had been submitted to the Council of Europe at an informal dinner of leaders of the Western Balkans.

“We do not recognize Kosovo's independence, but our response must be smart and wise to maintain peace and stability. We need to be firm, strong and persistent in defending our interests and in seeking to reach a solution through compromise and respect for what has been signed,” the Serbian leader said.

Serbian officials will do everything they can in the coming weeks to show they can fight and defend their country, he said.

“We are a small libertarian country that strives to preserve our sovereignty and the right to make our own decisions. We will try to confront them peacefully and diplomatically in this matter, our capabilities are limited, small, but life is a struggle. We will fight, there is no retreat, there is no capitulation and no evasion of blackmail or ultimatums. This is what we can do,” Vucic said.

He also noted that the situation could soon become even more difficult.

In turn, the head of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alexander Vulin, believes that if Kosovo becomes a member of the Council of Europe, then Belgrade must declare political neutrality, as it previously declared military neutrality.

“What the EU member states really think about Serbia will be shown by their vote on Pristina’s request for its membership in the Council of Europe. We don't have to wait another 20 years to find out if the EU wants Serbia as a member; they will only have to vote for or against the territory's admission to the organization. So far we have learned that the EU signature is worth as much as the Brussels Agreement. But now there is an opportunity to see how much the US word is worth,” Vulin said, hinting at the document signed in Washington.

According to him, the very announcement that Pristina will apply for membership in the Council of Europe is already a violation of the Washington Agreement and “Pristina will either be punished and stopped, or it will be shown that all lies are allowed in relation to Serbia and that the Serbs have no rights , and justice does not apply to them.”

“If Pristina becomes a member of the Council of Europe, Serbia must declare political neutrality, as the military declared. If we cannot choose our enemies, let us at least choose our friends,” Vulin said.

Zoran Milivojevic, a geopolitical commentator and former diplomat, notes that this is an action of Western power centers, not Pristina itself.

“It is obvious that this is a strategic attempt to establish Kosovo’s statehood in a roundabout way, since it is impossible to obtain it through the regular route through the UN,” Milivojevic emphasized.

In his opinion, the main idea is for the West to use its dominance in one international organization and its position in it, bypassing existing procedures.

“In this way they want to promote Kosovo even in the Council of Europe, and then put pressure on Serbia so that it accepts this as a resolved issue. Secondly, they want to put pressure on EU member states that have not recognized Kosovo, and put pressure on everything that does not correspond to Western interests on this topic.

As for Serbia, it, of course, does not accept this. As a permanent member of the Council of Europe, Serbia can politically and diplomatically insist on rules that apply to membership in international organizations that are broader in nature,” Milivojevic noted.

The Statute of the Council of Europe provides that decisions on membership are taken by a two-thirds majority vote in the Committee of Ministers. The Serbian president said that he does not know whether there is such a majority on this issue now.