Thaci and Vucic Spar at UN Over Kosovo Army

Kosovo and Serbia's presidents clashed at the UN Security Council in New York on Monday, with Hashim Thaci insisting that Pristina's recent decision to establish an army was legitimate, while Aleksandar Vucic insisted that Pristina had no authority to do this.

Thaci said that "nothing extraordinary happened in Kosovo last week", when parliament voted to establish the Kosovo Armed Forces.

"The decision may be belated, but it is not wrong," Thaci said.

He added that the establishment of a Kosovo army does not contravene international agreements or law.

But Vucic told the UN Security Council that no international document authorises Pristina to form its own army.

"Unexpectedly, they got huge support for that from Western countries," Vucic said.

The Serbian president called on the UN to take a bigger role in the process of normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Vucic also criticised Pristina's decision to impose 100 per cent tariffs on imports from Serbia and Bosnia, saying that it jeopardised the entire Serb community in Kosovo and violated the Central European Free Trade Agreement, CEFTA.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who spoke at the Security Council meeting before Thaci and Vucic, called on both sides to avoid taking steps that could worsen the situation in Kosovo.

EU calls on Kosovo to revoke tariffs

The European Union said on Monday that Kosovo should revoke its decision to increase tariffs on imports from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"The EU deeply regretted the government's unilateral tariff increases on imports from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the imposition of non-tariff barriers, and...