Wrote: Festim Rizanaj
According to a claim circulating in the media, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has said that "Belgrade is not ready to recognize Kosovo's independence."
The statement was reportedly made at a panel during the GLOBSEC Forum on Friday (June 13), which is being held in Prague.
After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it was found that Vučić did not explicitly state that "Belgrade is not ready to recognize Kosovo's independence."
What did Vucic say?
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, during his speech at the GLOBSEC Forum in Prague, spoke about the Kosovo issue, presenting it as an unresolved problem.
He was quoted in the media as saying: “This is about Kosovo. As you know, we adhere to the United Nations Charter and Resolution 1244, which states that Kosovo is part of Serbia. Twenty-two of the 27 EU member states have already recognized Kosovo’s independence, while five of them have not – and that is the problem. Belgrade is not ready to recognize Kosovo’s independence.” (here, here, here, here)
After verifying the statement published in the media, it was found that the last part of the quote — “Belgrade is not ready to recognize the independence of Kosovo” — was not said by the Serbian president, but was formulated by the panel moderator during the discussion at the GLOBSEC Forum in Prague. (watch here from the 12th minute)
After the moderator intervened with the phrase "Is Belgrade not yet ready to recognize Kosovo's independence?", President Vučić responded by saying: "Bratislava is not ready to recognize it, Bucharest is not ready, Athens is not ready, Madrid is not ready and Nicosia is not ready... and it is not ready."
This indicates that the statement widely quoted in the media was not explicitly made by Vučić himself, but represents an intervention in the form of a question by the moderator during the discussion.
Analyze:
The media is circulating a claim that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated at the GLOBSEC Forum that "Belgrade is not ready to recognize Kosovo's independence."
However, after verification by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that this sentence was not explicitly said by Vučić, but was a formulation by the panel moderator.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info considers this claim to be "unverified content".
Reasoning:
The "Unverified" rating is given to those informative contents that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which could not be verified due to certain circumstances (speed, lack of sources) during the publication of the content.