"Kosovo can join OSCE if there is political deal"

(Tanjug)

"Kosovo can join OSCE if there is political deal"

VIENNA -- Serbian FM and OSCE chairperson Ivica Dacic said on Thursday that the demands for Kosovo to join the OSCE are "nothing new."

During the past two years this has been put forward by Albania, "and is being done constantly by Pristina," he told reporters in Vienna, as Serbia formally took over the chairmanship of the organization.

U.S. ambassador for the OSCE Daniel Baer earlier in the day, during the Permanent Council meeting, asked for Kosovo "to be included in regional security initiatives."

"When it comes to the OSCE, decisions are made by consensus. You know how hard it is to reach consensus," Dacic told journalists, revealing that Serbia, as the country at the helm of the OSCE, "has been struggling for two days to harmonize the text of a condemnation of the terrorist attacks in France."

"I said, if we cannot agree on this, we're better off disbanding (the organization)," Dacic said, remarking at the same time that it has 57 member-states. That is the reason, he added, why Kosovo has no chance of being admitted to the OSCE, "unless there is some political agreement - and Vienna is not the place for that."

"The talks and dialogue with Pristina is taking place in Brussels. It is out of the question for Serbia to support or allow Kosovo to become an equal member of the OSCE, because its status has not been resolved," Dacic concluded.

Speaking about Serbia's chairmanship, he said it was "unrealistic to expect it will be the country that will solve major world problems and crisis," but underlined that Serbia wants and can help in the dialogue between parties.

He said at a press conference that the art of diplomacy is to find the best ways...

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