In a new post on his blog, Adrian Năstase talks about the tensions between Romania and Kosovo, in the context of the soccer match in the League of Nations, when the players from Kosovo left the soccer field.
“Kosovo had remained a province populated by Serbs and Albanians. How to turn a province into a state?”, writes the former prime minister.
“Our strategic partner, under democratic governance, invented a new people – the “Kosovo people”, in reality the Albanians of Kosovo. And this “people” also had the right to self-determination to form an independent state, didn’t they? Gumptious. This is also the reason why Bill Clinton has a statue in the center of the provincial capital. I think Madeleine Albright too”Adrian Năstase also wrote.
“This is a dangerous precedent”
“However, this is a dangerous precedent. On this model, any majority minority in a province of a state could declare statehood through a local referendum. It would be a pulverization of the current world structure and international stability. This is the reason why countries like Romania, Spain, Slovakia, Greece have opposed this mechanism which is contrary to international law. And Russia resisted but later took over the model and used it in the case of Crimea, Abkhazia, South Ossetia”.
“Kosovo self-declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. Since then, Romania’s position has consistently been non-recognition of its statehood. Although there were constant pressures for recognition from the EU (and some Western powers) but also from Washington.
Of course, outside of diplomatic relations, there are various economic or non-governmental contacts. Including in the field of sports.
The Romania-Kosovo football match should have been, I think, in the approach of the “Kosovars” a way to temper the Romanians’ reservations regarding the recognition of the statehood of the province. It didn’t happen that way. The attitude of the players from Kosovo, the violence of the reactions and the provocative gestures towards the Romanian supporters generated an even greater concern regarding the support of Romania’s official decision of non-recognition of the “state” of Kosovo”the former prime minister also wrote.
Source: www.cotidianul.ro
