RUSSIA DEFENDING "DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES" BY BACKING SERBIA ON KOSOVO - LAVROV
BBC Monitoring International Reports - April 20, 2007, Friday

Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet

Belgrade, 19 April: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic that Russia, in its opposition to breaking up Serbia's territorial integrity, defended the fundamental principles of the UN Charter and international order, the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said after the meeting of two ministers.

"Russia stands for the rights of Serbs and Serbia's historic, religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo, and thereby it defends the democratic principles of Europe and the modern world," Lavrov emphasized during the meeting with Draskovic.

Russia's position is that Kosovo status must be in the interest of both Belgrade and Pristina, and also that no side must fall short of its legitimate rights, Lavrov said.

Serbia, Draskovic said, seeks only what belongs to it by any law, and Kosovo Albanians and those who support them - in the violent creation of an independent state on the territory of sovereign Serbia - seek something which does not belong to them by any international document, the statement concluded.

Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1815 gmt 19 Apr 07

Copyright 2007 Financial Times Information
Copyright 2007 BBC Monitoring/BBC Source: Financial Times Information Limited

Posted for Fair Use only.