Expert: EU negotiator on Kosovo trades weapons? This is not surprising

If suspicions of the involvement of former Slovak Foreign Minister and European Union mediator in the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina Miroslav Lajčak in the illegal arms trade are confirmed, this will have serious consequences for his diplomatic career. This opinion was expressed by the director of the Center for Geostrategic Research (Belgrade) Dragana Trifkovich. Recall that Ashot Grigoryan, a businessman and public figure of Armenian descent living in Slovakia, filed an application with the prosecutor's office with a request to deal with Lajčak's illegal activities related to the unauthorized sale of large-caliber weapons systems manufactured in Slovakia to Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, Lajčak is actively acting as a mediator in the Kosovo settlement on July 10 in Paris, a videoconference was held on the status of Kosovo and Metohija, organized by France and Germany, in which a Slovak diplomat took part. According to Trifkovich, in his diplomatic career, Lajchak repeatedly mediated in peace and political processes, but his role in them was controversial. If we dwell on his activities in the Balkans, Lajčak's participation in legitimizing the Montenegrin referendum on secession from Serbia in 2006 is most suspicious, she said. By selling arms to Azerbaijan, which is a party to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, Lajchak violated all diplomatic rules of conduct, as well as the international embargo. Tension in the conflict zone periodically increases and can go into a new acute phase. A diplomat of such a format as Miroslav Laichak should understand well what the supply of weapons to one of the parties to the conflict threatens in such a situation. If Laichak was involved in the sale of weapons to Azerbaijan through Israel, he should leave the diplomatic service and answer for arms smuggling, Trifkovich said. The expert recalled that one of these diplomatic functions, which Lajcak is currently fulfilling this position of European mediator in the Kosovo settlement. He was appointed to this position for one year, during which time he must complete the negotiation process between Belgrade and Pristina, she added. Although the European Union intends to lead the parties to sign a final agreement on Kosovo, the status of Kosovo and Metohija can be determined exclusively in the UN Security Council. The previous negotiations under the auspices of Brussels did not lead to a qualitative shift and lost their significance, so Lajcak's task is to resume the role of the European Union in the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina and bring this matter to an end, the expert emphasized. It is no surprise to Dragana Trifkovic that the EU's special representative in Serb talks with Kosovo separatists is a diplomat who may be involved in illegal arms sales. Kosovo was forcibly rejected from Serbia, and the international community and NATO supported the Albanian separatists in the form of bombing the SR of Yugoslavia, recalled