K. Albanian official: Kosovo in intl. organizations

PRIŠTINA -- Kosovo Assistant Foreign Minister Petrit Selimi said Friday that the Belgrade-Priština agreement would lead to Kosovo’s membership in 36 regional organizations.

He added that the agreement would also allow Priština to open an office in Belgrade soon.

Selimi told Serbian reporters that Kosovo would immediately start working on becoming a member of international organizations.

He stressed that Kosovo would be a full-fledged member and not an observer or an associate member, adding that the agreed formula for Priština’s representation would be used to help Kosovo become a member in various international organizations.

“We will have the right to consensual relations and it is important to us because it allows us greater interaction and to be a more responsible member of the international community, and Kosovo and Serbia will sit at the same table,” Selimi said, adding that Kosovo had participated in regional meetings thanks to UNMIK and Gymnich formulas up until now.

He stressed that Priština had rejected the asymmetric representation which implied that Kosovo was only an observer because it wanted to be a full-fledged member of the regional initiatives.

The Kosovo official noted that Priština’s goal was not to use the agreed formula at the regional level only but also in the “wider context of the European organizations”.

He explained that Kosovo would establish relations with the EU despite the fact that five EU member states have not recognized its unilaterally declared independence.

Selimi repeated that Kosovo had been recognized by 88 countries and that 106 states had voted in favor of Kosovo’s admission in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), adding that Kosovo passports were recognized by more than 155 states, including China and the EU member states that had not recognized Kosovo.