Konjufca at the Security Council: Kosovo must advance toward UN membership

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Glauk Konjufca called on the United Nations Security Council to review its approach toward Kosovo and support its path toward UN membership.

During his speech, Konjufca questioned the need to continue discussions on Kosovo in this body, stressing that the Security Council is also facing other important issues that require attention.

He explained that Kosovo’s representatives attend the Council’s meetings to present the truth and respond, as he put it, to the destabilizing efforts of Serbia’s leaders, which aim to undermine Kosovo’s progress from war toward democracy.

Konjufca also addressed the role of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). According to him, the mission’s capacities should be used more efficiently to enable Kosovo’s inclusion in the UN system, including its bodies, agencies and programs.

He said that these resources should not be used as a tool to articulate claims that, in his view, undermine stability in the region.

In the concluding part of his statement, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora mentioned the opinion of the International Court of Justice concerning Kosovo’s declaration of independence. Konjufca stressed that the opinion had confirmed that the declaration of independence had not violated international law.

Konjufca concluded by saying that the Security Council should move to an affirmative agenda, through which the conditions for Kosovo’s membership in the United Nations would be created.