MOSCOW. July 2 (Interfax) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko and Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Duric have discussed cooperation and the pressing international agenda during political consultations in Belgrade.
"Deputy [Foreign Minister] Grushko held political consultations with Serbian Foreign Minister Duric in Belgrade on July 1-2. Special attention was given to the Kosovo [issue] settlement. [The sides] stressed their overlapping positions on the need to rely on international law [and] the fundamental UN Security Council Resolution 1244, the importance of comprehensively fulfilling the obligations arising from the dialogue between concerned parties, primarily, that of creating in the province a Community of Serb Municipalities vested with considerable executive powers," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on its website on Tuesday.
There were separate conversations with Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, it said.
The sides "exchanged views on the situation in the Balkans with the emphasis on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, complying with the General (Dayton) Framework Agreement for Peace, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of Republika Srpska," the statement said.
"The Russian side gave principled assessments of the West's responsibility for inciting and escalating the crisis around Ukraine, efforts to block the possibilities of a political settlement, and attempts to create an illusion of wide international support for the 'Zelensky formula' detached from reality and doomed to fail from the start," the ministry said.