Kosovo's unilateral secession from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law, the World Court said today in a case that could have implications for separatist movements around the world, as well as Belgrade's stalled EU membership talks.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling is likely to lead to more countries recognising Kosovo's independence and move Pristina closer to entry into the United Nations.
The court issued the non-binding ruling on Serbia's 2009 claim that Kosovo's declaration of independence secession was a "flagrant violation" of its territorial integrity.
"I expect Serbia to turn and come to us, to talk with us on so many issues of mutual interest, of mutual importance," Kosovo's foreign minister, Skender Hyseni, told Reuters after the ruling. "But such talks can only take place as talks between sovereign states," Mr Hyseni said.
Before the ruling, Serbian president Boris Tadic was quoted as saying: "If the ICJ opinion establishes a new principle, an entire process of creating new states would open throughout the world, something that would destabilise many regions of the world."
The United States and most other Western states recognised Kosovo's February 2008 declaration of independence, but Serbia rejected it, as did its ally Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Yesterday, the White House said US vice president Joe Biden reaffirmed US backing for Kosovo's independence at a meeting with visiting Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.
Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 when a 78-day Nato bombing campaign ended a two-year war between Serbia and ethnic Kosovo Albanians, and put in place a UN administration and a Nato-monitored ceasefire.
Since then some two million Albanians and 120,000 Serbs have lived separately in Kosovo, mutually suspicious and occasionally hostile to each other.
Belgrade has refused to recognise Kosovo's independence move and the dispute has held up its EU membership talks - and hindered its ability to attract foreign investment.
EU ministers did not debate Serbia's candidacy in June, waiting instead to see progress in relations with Kosovo, a source close to Brussels has said. The EU has told some of its diplomats to delay summer vacation plans to begin lobbying Serbia and Kosovo immediately after the ICJ ruling.
Georgia filed a lawsuit in 2008 against Russia at the same court, saying that Russia's incursion into its South Ossetia province amounted to ethnic cleansing.
Russia, which took two decades to crush a separatist rebellion in its Chechnya province, has recognised both rebel Georgian regions as independent states but few others have followed its lead.
Spain, which has its own regions seeking greater autonomy, has already said it will not recognise an independent Kosovo.
Reuters