|
In a last-ditch effort by Serbia, its foreign minister has gone to the UN in New York to ask the Security Council not to recognise the breakaway independence of Kosovo. It is anticipated that his plea will fall on the deaf ears of the mainly pro-independence members of the Council, which anyway would much prefer to keep out of this long-standing and contentious issue. Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is expected to declare independence on Sunday, February 17, one day before a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels where, doubtless, full support of the move will be given.
The European Union has been active in negotiations with Kosovo over its independence, offering support and the promise of economic assistance to bring it to the standards required for integration into the EU - an application for which is expected from Kosovo in due course - which Russia is against, besides Serbia. Russia has shown increasing concern at what it termed the "creeping Westernisation" of former Soviet bloc countries, either through the integration into the EU or as members of Nato. The Russian government considers such inroads an affront to its nationhood, yet doubtless it will not delay Kosovo's independence call.
|
