Hanoi - Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic Tuesday swayed
a roomful of Vietnamese university students towards opposing
recognition of Kosovo, the Serbian province which declared
independence on February 17.
In a fluidly argued speech and question and answer session with
students at Vietnam's official Diplomatic Academy, the 32-year-old,
Harvard-educated Jeremic said Kosovo's 'illegal' secession 'sets an
exceptionally dangerous precedent for the international system,' and
warned it would lead to the proliferation of ethnic strife and border
conflicts.
By the end of his talk, most of the students in the room, destined
to form the future staff of Vietnam's foreign ministry, appeared to
agree with him.
'We all think that the Kosovo issue has attracted too much
attention and interference from outsiders,' one young woman said,
prefacing her question after Jeremic's speech.
Other students, following Vietnam's official diplomatic line, were
more cautious.
'I think Vietnam shouldn't be clear about whether to object or
support the independence of Kosovo yet,' said Vu Hong Anh, a senior
at the academy. 'Vietnam should wait and see the reactions of other
countries.'
Vietnam, which occupies a temporary seat on the UN Security
Council, has tread a carefully neutral line on Kosovo, reaffirming
its support for Security Council Resolution 1244, which put the
province under UN administration in 1999.
Hanoi has traditional friendships with Serbia and Russia, which
oppose recognition, but also increasingly close relations with the
United States and several European countries that support
recognition.
Vietnam also has a history of opposing international interventions
in its own affairs, including clashes with a number of restive ethnic
minorities in its central highlands.
For Jeremic, Vietnam's reaffirmation of Resolution 1244 counts as
support. He said that because the resolution respects Serbia's
sovereign borders, and has never been superseded by the Security
Council, it renders Kosovo's declaration of independence illegal.
The Serbian foreign minister couched opposition to Kosovan
secession in the context of stable, predictable international
relations and Serbia's desire to join the European Union. 'Serbia's
future is in Europe,' he said.
But Kosovan secession, he argued, would destabilize south-eastern
Europe and provide a blueprint for ethnic secessionist movements
throughout Africa and the developing world.
Jeremic also recalled former Yugoslav president Josip Tito's
support for North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh in 1957, and
Yugoslavia's role in securing UN membership for Vietnam in 1977.
'When it counted, when the hardship of sacrifice was upon you, my
country delivered,' Jeremic said, asking for Vietnamese support on
Kosovo in return.
Jeremic's question and answer session proceeded in a strikingly
open atmosphere for Vietnam, where students are usually discouraged
from asking probing questions of their teachers, let alone senior
officials.
'Our teachers told us to avoid raising sensitive questions at the
meeting with the Serbian foreign minister, including those questions
related to Kosovo,' said Ly Tuan Minh, a third-year student at the
academy.
But that warning fell by the wayside when Jeremic's tightly argued
speech treated nothing but Kosovo. The academy's director, Duong Van
Quang, repeatedly tried to bring the session to a close, only to have
Jeremic invite more questions.
Student Minh himself apparently decided that his teacher's
warnings were no longer operative, and asked Jeremic what may have
been the most sensitive question of the meeting. How, he asked, did
Jeremic feel Serbia's position on Kosovo related to China's position
on 'Chinese Taipei', the approved Chinese and Vietnamese term for
Taiwan?
Jeremic did not directly address Minh's question.
Serbia's foreign minister met with Vietnamese leaders to promote
political and trade relations during his two-day visit.
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