Bush and Ban discuss Kosovo
The United States President George W. Bush and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discussed on Tuesday a series of inflammatory international issues, including developments in Kosovo, the White House said.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, April 16, 2008
"The President and Mr. Ban discussed cooperation between the European Union and the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to make sure that Kosovo is a stable country," the White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said after the two leaders spoke by telephone.
The conversation between UN chief and U.S. President came just a day after Ban's return to the office from his visit to Moscow, which was followed by a tide of speculations about the essence of conversations with Russian leaders.
The UN and Russia denied that harsh language had been used during the Kosovo-related discussions in Moscow, but Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that his country openly spoke of dissatisfaction over UN chief's hesitation to reject the unilaterally declared independency of the troubled province.
Meanwhile, in New York, Churkin and US ambassador Zalmay Khalizad engaged in a heated debate in which the Russian diplomat suggested to the US to think about their own activities first before expressing worries about the respect of international law.
The criticism followed a session of the UN Security Council on Abhazia, during which the mandate of the UN monitoring mission was extended until October.
The US expressed fear about Russia's support to Abhkazia's secessionist tendencies in Georgia.
"It is weird to hear fears of this kind from countries which have just recognized an illegal independence in other countries", Churkin said in reference to the US masterminding of Kosovo's unilateral secession.
"Those who are loudly expressing their worry about the respect of international law should, before all things, think about their own activities", Churkin said.
