| Serbia turning towards "non-aligned brothers" |
| 11 January 2009 | 12:51
| Source:
Večernje novosti |
BELGRADE --
Serbia is restoring full cooperation with the countries of the Non-Aligned Movement, and wishes to host the organization's 2011 summit, a daily writes.
Belgrade's Večernje Novosti newspaper reports this Sunday that Serbia this time around has no ambition to become a member of this movement which it helped establish, then under the name of Yugoslavia.
Belgrade intends to maintain good relations with the countries currently gathered in the organization, the daily says, quoting its diplomatic sources.
Several cabinet members have confirmed that the idea is serious, the report adds. Serbia does intend to host the Non-Aligned on the 50th anniversary of the movement's original gathering in Belgrade.
While it remains unclear if the Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi will once again set up a tent in a Belgrade park as he did in 1989, Večernje Novosti writes, diplomats are saying that closer ties with the organization do not signal a u-turn in the country's foreign policy, including the EU membership ambition.
As the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ) disintegrated in the early 1990s, the Non-Aligned Movement froze its membership, with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ) inheriting the same status.
After the October 5, 2000 changes, the country became an observer, and this is the status that Serbia holds today.
The movement is currently presided over by Cuba's President Raul Castro, who replaced his ailing brother Fidel.
Former Yugoslav President Dobrica Ćosić held the same position within the organization before Belgrade's status was frozen in 1992.
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