http://calibre.mworld.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory <http://calibre.mworld.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=296567791> &id=296567791
Macedonian president says Kosovo border ultimatum marks a bad start in bilateral relations Released : Wednesday, March 05, 2008 10:16 AM SANDANSKI, Bulgaria-Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski warned neighboring Kosovo Wednesday that its ultimatum on a border dispute bodes ill for bilateral relations. Crvenkovski said Kosovo authorities' insistence that his country should first recognize the new Balkan state and then discuss border issues marks "a bad start to bilateral relations." He was speaking after talks with his Bulgarian counterpart, Georgi Parvanov. Macedonia's northern border with Kosovo has never been officially delineated since the former Yugoslav republic gained independence in 1991. Macedonia says Kosovo is laying claim to some 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) of its territory. Crvenkovski said he would seek to bypass Kosovo's authorities on the issue, appealing instead to United Nations officials in the former Serb province. "I have proposed to my government not to address the Kosovo authorities, but rather the international institutions, which, as it seems, are to stay there for a quite a long time," Kosovo has never recognized a border agreement signed in 2001 between Macedonia and Serbia. When Yugoslavia broke apart in the 1990s, the administrative boundaries between republics became recognized as international borders.
