23 Mar. 2005

UN envoy briefs NATO Council on Kosovo News 22/03/2005 - NATO Mr. Soren Jessen-Petersen, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Kosovo, to Visit NATO on Wednesday, 23 March 2005 Opinion 23/03/2005 - NATO Transcript of the press point with NATO Secretary General and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Kosovo Multimedia 23/03/2005 - NATO High resolution photos 23/03/2005 - NATO Audio file of the press point (.MP3/5656kb) Soren Jessen-Petersen, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Kosovo, visited NATO HQ on 23 March to brief the Alliance on the political situation in the province. He addressed a session of the North Atlantic Council, the Alliance’s principal decision-making body, and met for talks with the Secretary General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Mr. Jessen-Petersen’s visit comes at an important moment for Kosovo. In May this year, a review of Kosovo’s compliance with standards set by the international community will determine the future of talks on the province’s final status. In his briefing, the Special Representative outlined the areas in which further progress needed to be made in Kosovo, including freedom of movement of minorities, the return of refugees and the participation of the Serb minority in decisions regarding the province’s future. The Secretary General assured Mr. Jessen-Petersen that the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force would maintain the necessary operational capability in what was still a “fragile situation”. “We see positive developments in the building of the new [Kosovo] government, but let’s not pretend we are there or that Kosovo is there,” Mr. De Hoop Scheffer told reporters at join press point with Mr. Jessen-Petersen.