Belgrade has sent a note of protest to the United Nations secretariat and has demanded an urgent investigation into how Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu was able to visit UN headquarters.
 
Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008 – a move rejected as illegal by Serbia – had a delegation headed by Sejdiu in New York at the time that Kosovo was debated by leaders participating in the annual General Assembly opening session.
 
Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic was reported by Serbian and Kosovo media as saying that Sejdiu and his delegation were private parties and therefore not allowed to take part in General Assembly proceedings.
 
However, Kosovo did not participate in the General Assembly, although its delegation did meet representatives of various UN states on the sidelines of the meeting, using passes to access UN headquarters.
 
Sejdiu described Belgrade’s protest note as "irrational", Radio Srbija said.
 
In a September 25 speech to the General Assembly, Serbian president Boris Tadic thanked all UN states that had not recognised Kosovo as independent and, underlining that the International Court of Justice proceedings on the question were still underway, urged that there be no further recognitions.
 
Tadic pledged once again that Belgrade would never recognise Kosovo as independent, viewing the unilateral declaration of independence in Pristina as illegal.
 
"I come before you as the president of a country that has become caught at the heart of one of the most dangerous challenges to the universality of the international system since the founding of the United Nations," Tadic said.
 
What he described as Kosovo’s "attempt at secession" was, he said, in direct violation of Serbia’s constitution, and the basic principles of the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, and Security Council resolution 1244 of 1999.
 
A contrary view was taken by Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha, who in his speech to the UN General Assembly, urged UN member states that had not yet recognised the independence of Kosovo to do so.
 
Berisha said that the newest state in the Balkans – Kosovo – had become a factor of stability for the region.
 
Kosovo media said that on Sejdiu’s return from New York, he said that there would soon be recognitions of independence by five countries – Tuvalu, Malawi, Qatar, Kuwait and Pakistan.