NATO urges swift status settlement

NATO urges swift status settlement

Following the informal meeting of NATO foreign policy chiefs in Oslo, de Hoop Scheffer told the press that “NATO’s stake in Kosovo was immense, as it deployed 60,000-odd troops in the Serb province.”

“I believe it is high time to define and settle the status of Kosovo after eight years of transition,” he added.

“This is a crucial moment in the settlement process. We now have a choice between a controllable process which would end in a precise UN SC resolution, and an uncontrolled process with unforeseeable risks,” the NATO Secretary-General said.

He added that NATO was not empowered to make political decisions.

“It is in our interest that the settlement process swiftly ends, given the fact that our troops have been present in Kosovo for eight years now. NATO foreign ministers backed Ahtisaari’s recommendations as an only possible viable step ahead,” he argued.

“Ahtisaari’s plan was the only compromise possible between the two sides,” he added.

However, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s reiterated Russia’s position at the NATO meeting in Oslo, voicing Moscow’s persistent backing of Serbia’s interests.