----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 6:58 AM Subject: Kostunica: Yugoslavia in NATO??? [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Yugoslavia's Kostunica talks of possible NATO link LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica was quoted on Thursday as saying Belgrade's relations with NATO were evolving so quickly that he did not rule out Yugoslavia becoming a formal alliance partner one day. Yugoslavia had turned the page in its relations with the West, Kostunica told Britain's Times newspaper in an interview, less than two years after NATO's bombers destroyed large parts of his country's infrastructure in the Kosovo conflict. He said he was shocked by the scale of the challenges facing him, including an ethnic Albanian insurgency in the south, threats of secession by Montenegro, the junior partner in the Yugoslav Federation, and huge economic and social problems inherited from the previous government headed by Slobodan Milosevic. In addition, there was an estimated $30 billion in damage caused by NATO's bombing campaign. "When I came to office, I did not expect the situation in the country to be quite so difficult; it is discouraging," Kostunica said, citing security and constitutional problems as well as 40 percent unemployment and 800,000 refugees. "I do not have any regrets. I only wish that we had been able to make the changes sooner," he said. Kostunica said one of the most surprising successes was the goodwill that he had encountered in contacts with the West. He said he could envisage Yugoslavia one day joining NATO's Partnership for Peace programme. "Partnership for Peace is not a priority for us, but it is not excluded and has been discussed. I would need more time and a change of attitude before thinking about it," Kostunica said. NATO devised its Partnership for Peace programme to draw former communist states into closer cooperation with the Western alliance, but stops short of offering full membership, which could antagonise a suspicious Russia. A popular uprising last October forced Milosevic to concede defeat to Kostunica in federal presidential elections held 10 days before. 00:07 03-08-01 ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
