The diplomatic battle between Kosovo and Serbia takes place in New York

While debates at the UN General Assembly begin on 25 September and last until October 1st, a delegation of the Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already arrived in New York.

Jethlir Zyberaj, adviser to Kosovo Government Foreign Affairs Minister Behgjet Pacolli, tells Radio Free Europe that the team, which deals with the preparation of the Kosovo delegation's visit to New York, is now standing in New York, while part of the delegation has already arrived.

The “yesterday (Monday), in New York, has also reached Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pacolli, who during this 10-day period will have an extremely busy agenda with more bilateral meetings with representatives or heads of states from around the world. Of course, Kosovo delegations will be the president (Hashim Thaci) and Prime Minister (Ramush Haradinaj). So the agenda since yesterday began for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as the leader of Kosovo diplomacy. We expect results in this direction, within the next 10 days”, Zyberaj said.

On the other hand, the connoisseur of political developments, Artan Mujaziri, says quite sceptical that Kosovo diplomacy could be effective in realising its goals during its stay in New York. According to him, the resulting experiences have shown that during the work of the United Nations General Assembly, Kosovo's diplomacy has failed to exploit bilateral meetings with world diplomats in its behalf.

“Diplomacy has not taken such opportunities to the maximum. There have been formal meetings and improvisements, as well as attempts to present this approach as a huge achievement, but reality has exposed them many times. So, even this time it cannot be expected much of this visit by leading Kosovo leaders, because there is no indication that there have been great and structural preparations to exploit this moment”, Muhrami stressed.

However, Zyberaj says Kosovo's diplomacy, during its stay in New York, will be directed at the realization of at least two goals.

Our “Fokus in the work of this year's UN General Assembly will be the lobby for Kosovo's membership in INTERPOL, which is practically an extremely important goal for security, not only our state, but also for regional and international security. We will also have meetings aimed at increasing the number of recognitions for the Republic of Kosovo.”, Zyberaj said.

But can the position of the Kosovo delegation in New York, during the work of the UN General Assembly, be seen as an extraordinary opportunity to achieve Kosovo's diplomatic goals?

Analyst Mujariri claims such an option, but according to him, realising this possibility is hard to believe.

The option is extraordinary, but Kosovo approach is common. Recognising the way Kosovo's diplomacy works, where there are many non-meditators who have high positions and who decide how the functioning of Kosovo diplomacy works, and also the partisanism (the persons of political parties), which leaves out of the good quotas that could contribute, but who are not part of parties or politics, which should be fully exploited, as well as the creation of a Kosovo diplomatic strategy ♫ it is not expected to achieve any success of<1> was expressed.

However, Mujariri suggests that if Kosovo achieves INTERPOL membership, it will be more as a result of any compromise or agreement by the international community than the achievement of Kosovo diplomacy.

According to him, Kosovo is now diplomatic defanzies towards Serbia, which is marking progress against that of Kosovo, and this, as he says, is also evident in the international media presentation.

On the other hand, Zyberaj has stressed that Serbia's diplomatic offensive to Kosovo has been initiated since declaring independence in 2008 and has never stopped. But, according to him, Kosovo's diplomacy has put ahead of the realisation of its goals, which are in the country's interest and are not oriented against anyone. /rel