Tatiana Obrenovic
The scenario offered with the Macron-Scholz cocktail for Serbia looks rather bleak and grim, which would cost us dearly historically, politically, geopolitically and economically.
As the basis for the 'new' agreement between Belgrade and Priština, the German-French proposal should come in handy, the Collective West stakeholders tend to think. What does that Scholz-Macron plan even mean? After all manner of agreements, non-papers and plans for thirty years so far, is there still a condition for Serbia to agree to the unrecognized pseudo state of Kosovo and its (im)probable membership in the UN? What is to change if the so-called Kosovo Republic becomes a UN member and/or NATO member? For which there is absolutely no realistic probability, because at least China and Russia shall veto it.
The German-French proposal should be used as the basis of the new agreement between Belgrade and Pristina - say Macron and Scholz in chorus. But let us look into what it entails. That plan comes across as a re-actualised, slightly revamped and somewhat modified plan by Wolfgang Ischinger from 2008 (my cluster of pleonasms is intentional); although it is not absolutely the same as Ischinger's Plan because the circumstances seem to have or probably have genuinely changed, it is blatantly obvious that it has been written in its wake or built upon these political foundations. Even some formulations emerging in this proposal publicised in the mainstream media are similar to or even absolutely identical to the formulations from the agreements between the two 'Germanies' i.e. the documents upon which the relations between East Germany and West Germany were normalized with German Reunification.
Back to 2023 and the issue in this article, one part of it has apparently been modified because they cannot count on the so-called Kosovo joining the UN but generally speaking, Republic of Serbia in bilateral relations would view the so-called Kosovo as 'its partner with equal rights', Serbia would not block its admission into any international organization, in all the multilateral formats so-called Kosovo would be able to participate in, in the same way as Serbia, which in principle means the factual recognition. The thing that Serbia would not have to formally recognize Kosovo, and Serbia would not have to change its Constitution, would just be a pacifier to puff a few whiffs of political smoke into its face, a political fig leaf for the local Serbian population to smother us in utmost humiliation nonetheless yet again, but this arduous and painstaking process and decades-old, NATO and the Collective West-orchestrated and by them forever stoked conflict would most probably meander away into a different abysmal direction if Serbia were to accept it in any of its shapes or forms.
Earlier on, Serbia was told that it need not recognize the so-called, pseudo state of Republic of Kosovo but it should get on board i.e. harmonize itself with pseudo-state Kosovo's UN membership. One wonders if there is still a prerequisite of any sort. There hasn't been any mention of it, it has not officially been presented anywhere whatsoever. Not even on the web pages of EU governing institutions and not even on those by their counterparts in the government of Serbia, its explicit and overt UN membership is nowhere to be seen in written form. But surely the intention is obvious; the legal/political intent is there.
But perhaps that could also be a thing the Western 'pseudo mediators' masquerading around with no granted or approved mandate whatsoever, might as well give up on at some point and perhaps only then will they, with their arms flailing, present that as a huge 'compromise' offered to Serbia. A question arises what they would gain if they do so. They would seize an opportunity to squeeze the so-called Kosovo in through barely visible legal and political loopholes and get it to join the Council of Europe (Let me illustrate my point here: try to imagine those obnoxious and incompetent Josep Borell, Miroslav Laicak and Gabriel Escobar hoodwinking the whole world in the manner Del Boy from BBC's Only fools and horses would do with his mates in the local Peckham flea market), join the Council of Europe where they do have mathematical majority but to get Kosovo into the EU and NATO as well.
Serbia's stance with the pseudo state Kosovo joining the UN is not the real issue here (because Serbia is not throwing political temper tantrums here in vain because it is first and foremost unconstitutional to ever sign any such legal or political document per se and relinquish one inch of our territory). We might put some 'tongue in cheek' thought to it though, once France lets Corsica go, the UK let Gibraltar and the Falklands go or perhaps even crying out loud Scotland, among many others or once Spain let Catalonia go or perhaps let Basque Country go their separate political ways and kiss each other goodbye, and so on and so forth.
To get back to the Kosovo issue, we in Serbia do essentially staunchly oppose its recognition though) yet the Collective West and grotesque Kurti, the work-in-progress Zelensky of the pseudo state of Kosovo, tend to conveniently forget that the diplomatic slap-in-the-face but hands in gloves style' veto can be put forth by Russia and China. For all those ignorant woke looney leftists in the Collective West and all their NATO jackals snapping at our political feet in Serbia, them screaming hysterically pro Albin Kurti, let me clarify this: for one candidate to become UN member there needs to be a two-third majority in the UN General Assembly and the consent by the UN Security Council. The so-called, pseudo Kosovo Republic does not meet any of these requirements. That is the reason why said set of requirements are as follows: the above mentioned UN Charter, the UN underlying basic principles, good neighbourly relations and Serbian territorial integrity; in this manner Serbia is sending off a clear message to the EU member states and NATO, despite the fact that the so-called Kosovo Republic will not be joining the UN, we might agree (in its rather 'far-fetched' and 'distant future', 'carrot-and-stick' variant aka never) to its becoming an EU member state and NATO.
One should bear in mind that within the EU, five countries have not yet established bilateral agreements with the pseudo state of Kosovo. The toughest opponent to it is Spain which is the most explicit in its steadfast approach and surely Cyprus, which is the most hard-headed opponent as well with their most resounding 'No' to the whole sorry affair. Four members within NATO are also harshly against this. In a nutshell, there are certainly clear obstacles for the pseudo state of Kosovo to join EU and NATO. With the EU issue, that process of joining the EU would most probably be set in some political motion at a very slow speed (Turkey comes to mind) but never to be completed. There is surely a huge issue of them 'legalizing and legitimizing' the pseudo state of Kosovo status in all these aspects. With this French-German Plan at hand now in all its far-fetched, narrow fetched and (im)possible eventuality, that political door would be wide open to the so-called republic/pseudo state of Kosovo.
What would change if the so-called pseudo state of Kosovo were to join NATO? Let us be honest to each other, NATO could not care less about the poor people in Kosovo and Metohija be it Serbs or local minorities, they only want to plunder our plentiful resources there, to ensure drug trafficking, human trafficking and jihadis unimpeded routes all the way to Europe for their dirty money business deals and to gain ever stronger NATO military foothold against Russia and China). In case Serbia OK-ed it by any meagre chance, all status 'negotiations' would be in effect finished, over and done with (Mind you, these are and never have been negotiations but U.S. and the Collective West strong-arming the tiny vulnerable, Serbia in the NATO ever expanding onslaught towards Russia).
Serbia in that case would not de jure establish bilateral agreements with Pristina, because the so-called Republic of Kosovo is not a UN member, so the status issue would not be over at all, yet they will then de facto be given a chance to join each and any international organization which might suit their fancy, particularly in the international organizations where the mathematical majority is held by the Collective West countries. In that case, the whole issue would be in its political essence finished. Moreover, Serbia's own political, geopolitical and strategic position would be in an extremely detrimental position. Following the same brutally murderous model already seen in Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro, the status of the Albanian minority in Presevo and Bujanovac would soon sneakingly seep their way into the daily political NATO agenda here through all the politically cancerous cracks and faultlines, of which all the power- and profit- hungry NATO puppets are well aware of via their intelligence service which keep their ears close to the ground, which would then give rise to the next detrimental and possibly Ukraine-style tragic bloodbath to have to cope with shortly in the whole of the Balkans and Europe too.
All manner of reciprocal arrangements would have to be come up with, because the 'Zelensky-style' political Pristina would elbow its way further and forever, and the status of our Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija would be in severe danger from the Shqiptari extremists so the Serbian nation both there and in Serbia Proper would be sadly stuck in a rut of its defense position again. It would also be a huge challenge as to how to function in those most dangerously hostile political surroundings. It would then badly mirror the Serbian complete position in international relations regardless of the fact whether we give our tacit or formal recognition to Kosovo or not. Serbia would find itself in an awkward and unenviable position to have been previously diplomatically kindly asking other countries to withdraw their recognition of the pseudo state of Kosovo and support her political position but then all of a sudden to give it up completely on your part.
This will reverberate wrongly for the whole position of the country of Serbia in our international relations. This French-German proposal seems to be both part of the problem and part of the solution for Serbia. Serbia shall rather remain adamant in its intention to give a staunch statement to the whole political world to never forget the Resolution 1244. At present we see a huge stampede of pseudo experts and analysts, envoys and representatives line-up jetting in and out of the official Belgrade and in (for Serbia: unofficial) Pristina, telling us of their own, often incompetent interpretations and solutions to our woes but of their making. They threaten us with a platter of sanctions of all sorts, they offer us meaningless options aka ultimatums, forgetting all along that the Serbs are allergic to ultimatums. They tell us if we say yes, we shall be able to be issued visas into EU at the click of a button,, and to swap our centuries old Serbian Orthodox Monastery of Decani for the idiotic Parndorf shopping center fleeting and utterly ludicrous shopping tours to Vienna, Austria, but sadly in all this EU/NATO/USA puppet show of amateurs, an ominous mixture of newly emerging future geopolitical issues seem to be taking shape only to become part of the daily agenda to be dealt with urgently at some later point in the near future, which will heavily burden not only Serbian national security but that of each and every country or community locally and regionally as well.
The so-called (pseudo) state of Kosovo (and Metohija) may be used by the Collective West as a political whip to try and brutally push Serbia into NATO so that Serbia in that case as a potential new country to join (which is not very probable at all) would have to prove itself as the youngest member to join. We would have to finalize all that process by way of, for instance, giving support to, in this context, Ukraine (which 87 % of the Serbs are staunchly against) and to take extreme stance against Russia or China or for NATO preferably both, in which case we would be left stranded without any allies, partners or true and kindhearted political friends in terms of any long term positioning in already weak and vulnerable international relations.
A lengthy new set of delicate issues seem to be raising their politically ugly heads, to which there is no clear nor obvious response or solution at all, in this Pandora's box and possibly many more to be slapped on our political platter at this point when the world may possibly be teetering on the verge of the new Great (the Third) World War. The scenario offered with the Macron-Scholz cocktail aka the French-German Proposal for Serbia looks rather bleak and grim, which would cost us dearly historically, politically, geopolitically and economically. But rest assured all of you in the political Washington DC, London, Berlin and Brussels et al, with all your incompetent stampede of dilettantes in the shape of unmandated Gabriel Escobar, Laicak, Schmit, Borrell, Macron or Scholz, the Serbs shall resist with courage and bravery and beat you at your own political game in the end.