Kosovo independence proclamation affects Serbia’s sovereignty and is much more painful for Belgrade when a neighbouring country recognises it, Serbian ambassador to Bulgaria Danilo Vucetic said on March 21, one day after Sofia recognised Kosovo’s independence.

However, Serbia would not do anything that would hinder the development of economic relations with Bulgaria, Vucetic said in comments aired by private broadcaster Nova Television. Still, it was possible that there would be repercussions in other fields, such as the cancellation of the scheduled high-level visit of Serbian officials who were due to discuss health care issues later this March.

It was now up to the two countries to ensure that such consequences would be less severe and to “lay the basis for improvement of the relations in future,” the ambassador said.

As to the reported incidents with stoned Bulgarian cars and beaten drivers, “these were isolated cases, which resulted from the actions of separate people, but were not a product of the Serbian Cabinet’s policy”, Vucetic said. Serbia would gain no benefits if communication routes changed, as the traffic from Bulgaria through Serbia was of strategic importance to Serbia.

Deputy Foreign Minister Lubomir Kyuchoukov, who was invited to present Bulgaria’s position on the issue at the channel's morning talk-show, said that there were three main reasons for the recognition of Kosovo - regional stability, Bulgaria’s membership in EU and NATO and the fact that everything pointed to the irreversible nature of Kosovo's independence drive. If the process was not stabilised, "it could lead to the use of force. Bulgaria does not want to have powder keg next to it and to be evaded by strategic investors,” Kyuchoukov said.

“Bulgaria had never claimed that independent Kosovo was a factor for stability,” but that was now the reality and Bulgaria had to face it and try to find stability within the current situation, Kyuchoukov said. However, he could not say what exactly Bulgaria’s benefits from Kosovo’s recognition would be.

Still, Kyuchoukov emphasised that Bulgaria took the decision to recognise Kosovo without any pressure form outside.

According to Vucetic, the unilateral proclamation of independence by Kosovo did not lead the region to stability. Such stability could have been reached only with mutual agreement, he said. Vucetic also said that he was still ambassador to Bulgaria, but was recalled to Belgrade for consultation, that being the standard operating procedure announced by Serbian authorities for countries that recognised Kosovo's independence.