Tadić: Serbia doesn't decide on Kosovo

Tadić: Serbia doesn't decide on Kosovo

He added efforts must be made to maintain the country’s integrity and preserve its democratic and European character under difficult circumstances.

“Unfortunately, there is no doubt the final decision on Kosovo’s future status does not lie with Serbia and its institutions. The issue has been internationalized all the way to the UN Security Council level, and that is something every citizen must be aware of,” Tadić said.

Speaking about the slow pace of the ongoing cabinet talks, Tadić urged the speeding-up of negotiations, “since fresh elections would not benefit anyone.”

He also reiterated the Democrats’ continued insistence that Božidar Đelić should be the next prime minister.

In the wake of the International Court of Justice judgment, Tadić told the session, “no one in Serbia can any longer claim Mladić was guarding the interests of the Serbian nation.”

“Serbia needs diplomacy”

Earlier today, while attending ceremonies marking the 90th anniversary of the Toplica Uprising in Blace, Tadić said Serbia would demonstrate to the rest of the world that it was a modern country which shared European values, at the same time refusing to give up parts of its territory.

“It is with this conviction that we participate in the Vienna talks. We are doing absolutely everything we can to defend Serbia’s integrity, and that remains the most important task ahead of us today,” Tadić told journalists in Blace.

“Challenges and difficulties in the future Kosovo status talks call for different ways and means of defending our integrity,” Tadić said at the ceremony, adding Serbia today needed the skills of diplomacy.

The Toplica Uprising was the only one organized in any occupied state during the entire WW1 and saw Serbians rebel against a Bulgarian-Austrian occupation of the country. The large-scale uprising lasted from February 21 to March 25, 1917, and was, despite initial successes, crushed in blood.