Kosovo returns to the agenda of the United Nations Security Council on January 22 2010 with Serbian president Boris Tadic scheduled to speak, Belgrade having decided to send its head of state to the debate because the situation is "serious and complicated".
 
Kosovo will be represented by its foreign mnister, Skënder Hyseni.
 
Belgrade daily Politika quoted Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic as saying that "we consider that the situation in Kosovo is serious and complicated and this is the reason why we have decided that Serbia will be represented at the highest level".
 
Serbia’s B92 said that Tadic would tell the Security Council about "the threat to the safety of all people in the region, caused by the statements of the outgoing Croatian president, Stjepan Mesić, who said that he would use military means to cut the corridor on the Bosnian side of the Sava river valley in the event a referendum on the independence of the Republic of Srpska".
 
The Security Council debate takes place against the background of a regular report, made public on January 15 2010, in the name of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
 
Ban called on Serbia and Kosovo, which unilaterally declared its independence in February 2008, to find ways to put aside status considerations in the interest of pursuing regional co-operation.
 
"I urge flexibility in continuing to define a modus operandi with regard to Kosovo’s participation in regional and international mechanisms and forums that are essential to the economic and democratic development and the long-term stability of the region," Ban said in his report to the Security Council on the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the UN News Service said.
 
Ban reported an improvement in UNMIK’s relations with the Kosovo authorities after they had maintained very limited contacts with his Special Representative Lamberto Zannier during previous months and terms the overall security situation "relatively calm, but potentially fragile."
 
UNMIK administered Kosovo from 1999 when North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) forces drove out Yugoslav troops amid bloody ethnic fighting between Serbs and Albanians, but it gave up its administrative role following the declaration of independence, which Serbia rejects while expecting a robust role on the part of the Mission.
 
"UNMIK remains committed to facilitating the engagement of all sides in order to find practical solutions to issues of mutual concern," Ban said. "Despite the co-operation with all sides, agreement has proved difficult in such areas as justice, customs and cultural heritage."
 
UNMIK has continued its efforts to find durable solutions for protecting Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo, but without success, although the issue "is in the interest of all parties and has been discussed extensively for many months," Ban said.
 
During the 1999 fighting and outbreaks of violence since, Serbian Orthodox churches and Albanian mosques were destroyed or damaged.
 
While pleased that tensions between Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbs have significantly decreased in the northern Kosovo community of Kroi i Vitakut/Brdjani, Ban said that the situation in northern Kosovo remained fragile.
 
"In particular, inter-ethnic incidents continued to occur in northern Mitrovicë/Mitrovica, which is a cause for concern," the report said.
 
"UNMIK has continued to support minority communities, to encourage reconciliation and to facilitate dialogue and regional cooperation," Ban said, emphasising that UNMIK’s strategic goal "remains the promotion of security, stability and respect for human rights in Kosovo and in the region through engagement with all communities in Kosovo, as well as with Pristina and Belgrade and with regional and international actors."