Serbia: Tadic's kissing up

Serbian President Boris Tadic writes in today's Washington Post about the future of the Balkan region. Looking back on the process that led to Montenegro's recent independence, the President renews his willingness to "extend to them a hand of friendship".

President Tadic calls on his country to increase cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, dubbing those who protect the elusive alleged war criminal General Mladic as "the least patriotic of Serbs". He reminds his readers of Serbia's past, recognizing that in both 20th century's world wars, his country had "aligned itself with the forces of freedom".

In respect to Serbia's successful democratization within the last six years however, Mr Tadic insists on what he calls "spirit and practice of reciprocity" between Serbia and the international community; the "punitive isolation of a democratic Serbia" would not be useful in solving the regions problems. The shift Mr Tadic is arguing for is one "from conditionality to reciprocity". Only through this approach, adjusted to the new role of Serbia, can "success [.] be complete and collective", especially the lingering Kosovo conflict.

With explicit regard to this problem, the Serbian President considers it "not reasonable to ask Serbia to believe in vague promises", and puts his emphasis on the build-up of confidence which he considers vital in the process of reaching a negotiated outcome; Mr Tadic sees all affected groups, "Serbs, Albanians and the entire region", as sharing "the same interest in such an outcome".

This entry was posted by rodoyf, on Wednesday, June 07, 2006. You can leave your response.