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U.S. Would Welcome Yugoslav Bid for OSCE Membership

U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) Vienna
October 19, 2000
STATEMENT ON THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
Delivered by U.S. Charge d'Affaires Josiah B. Rosenblatt to the
Permanent Council, Vienna, October 19, 2000
Thank you, Madame Chairperson.
We welcome the recent democratic changes in the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia. The OSCE has an important role to play in supporting those
changes, in welcoming the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia into the
family of democratic states, and in facilitating its integration into
Europe and appropriate Euro-Atlantic fora. The Chair has been
commendably active in this regard.
We note the Chair's letter to Kostunica regarding Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia membership in the OSCE. We would welcome a request from the
new Yugoslav government to apply as a new OSCE member, as one of the
equal successor states to the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, following a comparable path to membership in the OSCE. We
join CiO and other delegations in concluding that the OSCE Ministerial
would be an appropriate event to celebrate the democratic changes in
Yugoslavia.
With regard to events this week in Belgrade, we are pleased to note
reports of the power-sharing arrangement agreed to earlier in the week
that will allow a transitional government of Serbia to be formed made
up of members of the Socialist Party of Serbia, the Democratic
Opposition of Serbia, and the Serbian Renewal Movement. We welcome the
new elections for the Serbian Parliament that will be held in
December.
This is a step forward in the process of consolidating democracy in
Serbia. It prevents members of the current Serbian government -- which
supported former President Milosevic -- from using its offices
unilaterally, and gives the democratic forces a voice in these
important Ministries leading up to the elections. President Kostunica
and his allies face a complicated challenge in forming a new
government. We strongly support his efforts to form it.
We welcome the secretary-general's report of his visit to Montenegro
and applaud his initiative in undertaking that visit. First and
foremost, we continue to support a democratic Montenegro within a
democratic Yugoslavia. We are pleased that this week President
Kostunica initiated a dialogue with President Djukanovic in a process
to restructure the Yugoslav federation. We believe that the issue of
the constitutional relationship between Serbia and Montenegro within
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is for those two republics to
address in a mutually acceptable way. We will continue our friendly
relations with the Government of Montenegro and encourage a
constructive dialogue between Serbia and Montenegro.
Thank you.