British Ambassador: It grieves Kurti Government's refusal to Serbia's elections

Serbia's “for elections has had a presedan since 2012, where the QUINT and the OSCE have collected ballot papers, but in conversations we've had with Government they've made it clear that they don't want to do this anymore. We've looked at other options and offered them to the Government, but she refused. This is to regret because I think it has been an opportunity for Kosovo to demonstrate that it is ready to show that minorities, in this case Serbs can vote but still remain to the Government if it wants to do so“, Abbott stressed at RTK.

He has said further that they have not reached such an agreement, even though as states of the QUINT have been in favour of the idea Serbia has presented about holding elections.

There's always a moment in diplomacy where we want to surround the parties. What we have seen on Sunday has been a plan B, where a large number of voters, perhaps more than intended, have managed to go to Serbia and vote. It's not that it's been a clear rejection of the Government, because there have been many discussions with Prime Minister Kurti and others, but that we didn't finally achieve the progress we wanted”, it underlined Abbott.

He has further said that in such cases Kosovo should prove its maturity and clearly show what its perspective is.

“We have heard a lot in the political dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia to talk about the past, but we have not heard as much as in the future, and I believe it is extremely important that there is some kind of debate about what Kosovo wants for the future. So what is he trying to promote? What we want is for Kosovo to be a multiethnic democracy, a country that in the interest of minorities is made decisions, considering those rights make sure they are protected and promoted. And this has been the example where we thought that Kosovo has not met these values”, is expressed in Abbott.

He has also talked about developments in Ukraine and Kosovo's NATO membership, the Civil Project, visa liberalisation and other topics.