UNMIK/PR/1241
PRISTINA – SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen paid a visit to Montenegro on 8 October, completing the circle of his visits to all the neighbours of Kosovo.
During the visit, the SRSG held separate meetings with Miodrag Vlahovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Milo Djukanovic, the Prime Minister, and Filip Vujanovic, the President. They exchanged views on issues of mutual interest, especially in the areas of the way forward in Kosovo, regional security, and UNMIK’s relationship with its interlocutors.
The SRSG informed the leaders that earlier in the day, the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and OSCE, as UNMIK’s Pillar III, had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the opening of polling centres in Serbia proper for the 23 October Kosovo Assembly election. SRSG expressed his hope that a similar agreement could also be signed with Montenegro. The leaders pledged their full support and said that they would do whatever needed to facilitate voting by displaced people.
The SRSG briefed the leaders on the latest discussions held by the international community on the way forward in Kosovo. He listed the five priorities that the international community would look at in the regular Standards implementation review process and stressed that only positive results would lead to the start of talks about the future status.
Mr. Jessen-Petersen also held a meeting with the leader of the Democratic Union of Albanians, Ferhat Dinosha, who briefed the SRSG about the situation of the ethnic Albanian community in Montenegro.
Earlier on Friday, the SRSG together with Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi participated in the NATO change of command ceremony in Naples, Italy.