BUCHAREST — Serbia will never recognize Kosovo’s independence, President Boris Tadic said during a one-day visit to Romania yesterday. However, he added that Serbia also not renounce its future within the fold of European Union
“Serbia will never recognize Kosovo, it wants to preserve its territorial integrity,” Tadic told a joint news conference with his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu. “But neither will it renounce its future membership of the European Union,” he said. “Serbia will not go along the path of self-isolation,” Tadic said on his first official visit abroad since Kosovo declared independence on Sunday.
Romania is one of only few EU countries that have said they will not recognize an independent Kosovo. Belgrade would nevertheless “scale down its diplomatic collaboration with countries that recognize Kosovo’s indpendence, while respecting the norms that every other country would respect in the same situation,” Tadic said.
Serbia has already recalled its ambassadors to countries such as the United States, France, Turkey, Germany and Austria after they signaled they would recognize the breakaway province.
At the same time, Tadic was quick to rule out any military option, insisting that Serbia “will not conduct a war, given our very painful experiences connected with the confrontations in the Balkans.”
That would “reinforce our credibility” internationally, he continued, adding that Serbia wanted to be “an important stability factor” in the region.
For his part, Basescu urged Belgrade to accelerate its steps toward EU integration.
“The EU hopes that Serbia will become one of its members, once it fulfills the necessary conditions,” Basescu said. “Any strategy that would lead to isolation would be damaging for Serbia,” he said, urging Belgrade to “communicate” with the EU countries and with Pristina, “if only to protect Serbs living in Kosovo.”
Protesters Break Into US Embassy
Tadic’s visit to Romania, one of Serbia’s traditional allies, took place only hours before hundreds of protesters broke into the American embassy in Belgrade and went on to set some rooms on fire in protest at Kosovo’s independence.
Police were not protecting the building that had been closed and boarded up after rioters stoned it earlier in the week.
One protester climbed up to the first floor of the building, ripped the Stars and Stripes off its pole and briefly put up a Serbian flat in its place.
Some protesters jumped up and down on the embassy balcony, holding up a Serbian flag as the crowd below of about 1,000 people cheered them on, shouting “Serbia, Serbia.”
The storming of the building came during a state-backed rally to protest Kosovo’s secession on Sunday. The rioters were mainly young men, some of whom wore balaclavas and scarves to hide their faces.
