Serbian President Boris Tadic expressed belief on Wednesday that Great Britain would back Serbia on December 9, when Brussels is due to decide on granting candidate status to the country.
“I trust that Great Britain will support us, but that requires certain prerequisites – continuation of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, and before that a solution for the administrative crossings in northern Kosovo,” Tadic told Tanjug after his meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Tadic added that achieving candidate status is not an easy task, but voiced his belief that Serbia would manage to realize it in December.
Asked to comment Britain’s stand that the prerequisite for candidate status is immediate progress in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Tadic said:
“We all share the same position and we discussed that at the meeting. We expect to find a solution to the administrative crossings, and we hope that is possible.”
He recalled that unilateral actions of the Kosovo special force had triggered the crisis in northern Kosovo, thus causing a new problem.
“We are trying to reach a solution. We were active in putting forward proposals,” Tadic said, and added that Serbia hopes that the solution would make it possible to renew the negotiation process with Pristina.
He said that after that, solutions should be sought for the technical part of the dialogue, underlining that the solutions would not imply the recognition of Kosovo.
“I discussed this with Cameron. Serbia is very honest and straightforwad in that respect – Kosovo recognition is out of question,” Tadic underscored.
Noting that he and Cameron discussed the historic ties between the two countries, Tadic said that special emphasis had been put on the fight against terrorism, organised crime and corruption in Serbia.
“Great Britain and its security system proved as very helpful in that respect,” Tadic said.
Tadic and Cameron also touched on the issue of economic cooperation, given the problems the whole of Europe is being faced with, including Great Britain.
“The economic cooperation between the two countries is at a very low level, and the scope of investments is not much better. There are a few companies that are significant, but that is far beyond the desired level,” Tadic said.
We also discussed ways of making Serbia’s diaspora and British businessmen more active, as well as certain not-so-high investments, whose realisation is still pending.
Those investments represent a good example of what could be done in the future, Tadic said.
Source emg.rs
