Kosovo to become precedent-Russian FM

Kosovo to become precedent-Russian FM
ITAR-TASS - September 20, 2006 Wednesday 07:43 AM EST

MOSCOW, September 20 - Russia insists that ``the settlement process in Kosovo should develop strictly in accordance with Resolution No. 1244 of the U.N. Security Council, in order to rule out a possibility of the creation of a hotbed of permanent instability in the southern part of Europe.'' This is Russia's stand at the 61st U.N. General Assembly session, which was set forth on the Internet site of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

``Russia is working for achieving long-term stabilisation in the Balkan Peninsula on the basis of strict observance of the international-legal platform, worked out by the U.N., and of coordinated international agreements,'' the Russian Foreign Ministry continued. The U.N. Security Council should exercise strict monitoring of the situation in the region. Diplomatic work for the solution of the Kosovo problem has entered a new stage.

``We believe a resolution of the U.N. Security Council on the results of the discussion at the Security Council of progress in ensuring the needed standards should precede the beginning of talks on the future status of Kosovo. At the same time, it would be counterproductive to set strict time limits for the talks on the Kosovo status,'' the document said. In the opinion of Russia, the priority task consists in ``a real observance of the standards for the purpose of guaranteeing the exercise of the basic rights and freedoms of all the ethnic groups in the area.''

``It is extremely important to proceed from the assumption that the resolution on Kosovo should be of a universal character. It will become a precedent : All talk about the unique character of the Kosovo situation, about its inability to become a precedent is nothing but an attempt to ignore the international-legal norms, which takes us away from the real situation. Moreover, such statements evoke mistrust for the world community, because they create the impression of double standards in the work for the settlement of crises in various parts of the world. They make people believe that this or that rule is applied at one's own choosing, depending on a concrete situation,'' the document of the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.