Ethiopia Denies Visas to Kosovo Officials

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Ethiopia Denies Visas to Kosovo Officials
Belgrade | 29 January 2010 | Bojana Barlovac


Jeremic in Addis Ababa
A Kosovo delegation, led by its Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni, couldn't attend the African Union council session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia because the delegation members were denied entry visas.
Fonet news agency learned from the Serbian embassy in Addis Ababa that the decision to not issue the visas to the Kosovo delegation came after Serbia’s intervention.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic reportedly thanked his Ethiopian counterpart Seyoum Mesfin on this principled gesture.

Speaking at the opening of the session, Jeremic welcomed the fact that as many as 80 per cent of the member-states of the African Union have not recognised Kosovo's independence and called on them to maintain their stance.

"We ask all the countries represented in this room which have not recognized Kosovo to stay the course by not accepting Kosovo's attempted secession. We do so not only in the name of our traditional ties of friendship, but in the name of working together to consolidate a rules-based international order for the 21st century- one in which secession is clearly seen as a dangerous threat, and one in which reaching agreement between the parties is the only legitimate, sustainable way forward," Jeremic said.

He also recalled the history of strong ties between Serbia and the Non-Aligned Movement, the first session of which was held in Belgrade in 1961.