Nikolic: We need new annex to Brussels agreement

BELGRADE - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has said that Pristina’s announcement about forming a Kosovo army calls for a new annex to the Brussels agreement.

Appearing on a Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) talk show late on Tuesday, Nikolic said that it has been four months since he brought the issue of the so-called Kosovo Armed Forces before EU officials.

“They replied that it is about (the creation) Kosovo defense forces, and I asked who they were defending themselves from," Nikolic said.

“Then I observed that, if defense forces are being created, then they should also be created in the north of Kosovo (where Serbs make up the majority population) and that, just like with the agreement on the police, an agreement should be reached that their composition reflects the composition of the population,” he said.

Nikolic said that a new annex to the Brussels agreement is necessary and it will be a topic of the EU-facilitated talks between Belgrade and Pristina due to resume in Brussels.

“The essence is that if Pristina is making their own army, the Serbs in northern Kosovo should get theirs, too” he said.

Nikolic said that Serbia has received clear assurances that the so-called Kosovo Armed Forces, which will be formed in two to three years, will never set their foot in the Kosovo north.

Nikolic once again stressed that Serbia will not recognize Kosovo’s independence, but it is preparing to regulate by law a fundamental autonomy for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM), which is its constitutional obligation and it is allowed to do so under UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

Nikolic said that Serbia will not recognize Kosovo’s independence even if the EU demands that.