SHANGHAI, June 2. /TASS/. The US and other NATO countries should not interfere in the Kosovo issue, because the problem cannot be resolved by force, the executive director of the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Sun Qi, told TASS on Friday.
"In terms of international law and international norms, I have always held respect for Serbia's sovereignty and territorial integrity and I oppose any form of external interference. I believe that the issue of Kosovo should be resolved within the framework of the relevant UNSC resolutions. The parties concerned should seek mutually acceptable solutions through dialogue and consultations. Political interference by the US and other NATO countries is unacceptable," the expert said.
Sun believes that, judging by the current situation, a "small crisis" is brewing around Kosovo, although the probability of its escalation into a "big crisis" is not very high.
"The current circumstances as they are, Kosovo and Serbia can't resolve the issue by force," he said. The expert recalled that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stated that legal means should be employed to protect the rights and interests of Serbs in Kosovo.
"In the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo, any third party must be fair and unbiased towards either party in order to facilitate a peace resolution of the conflict between the two sides. Therefore, the EU must take steps to ensure NATO should not only protect Kosovo, but also establish a fair relationship - as fair as possible - between Kosovo and Serbia. All sides should go ahead with a quest for a mutually acceptable solution in order to prevent the Kosovo issue from turning into a crisis," Sun believes.
In his view, the Kosovo issue is somewhat similar to the Ukrainian one. Both problems emerged in identical situations - one after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the other after the collapse of Yugoslavia. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence and was supported by NATO countries, he recalled.
"If NATO countries use military means to interfere in Serbia's internal affairs for their own interests or want to overthrow the government in Serbia, it is very likely that a new war will break out," he said, adding that this war would not only be between Serbia and Kosovo, but very likely it would be an internal geopolitical conflict across Europe as a whole.
Aggravation of the situation
Tensions in the Serbian municipalities in northern Kosovo escalated on May 26, after Kosovo police special forces occupied administrative buildings in the municipalities of Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic. The security forces attempted to secure the inauguration of the heads of local municipalities who had won elections that were boycotted by the Serbian population. On May 29, NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) surrounded the administrative buildings, after which protests broke out and turned into outright clashes. Vucic said 52 Serbs requested medical assistance at the hospital in Mitrovica; three of them were seriously wounded. The NATO mission said that more than 40 members of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingents were wounded. Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said on Monday that the country's army was on high alert in connection with the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, and its units were deployed along the administrative border of the autonomous Serbian province.