As Pristina gears up for potential World Bank and International Monetary Fund membership, it is time for Serbia to accept its new neighbor graciously.

Below is an article reported by Beta and published by B92:

Božidar Đelić, DS, said ahead of today’s [12 April 2008] session of the two institutions in Washington that in talks with IMF and World Bank representatives, the Serbian delegation had laid out its state policy towards Kosovo.

“We said that Serbia would never recognize independence,“ he stressed.

“We said that we would do everything in our power to prevent that entity’s membership of those financial organizations,“ said the deputy prime minister.

However, he added that this was a “difficult situation“ given that voting rights in those institutions were proportionate to the amount each individual country had invested in them.

“It’s a tricky situation because the countries that have thus far recognized Kosovo are among the IMF and World Bank’s highest contributors,“ said Đelić, adding that Serbia could expect a very tough battle in this domain.

[…]

Earlier this week [Week 15, 2008], World Bank Regional Vice President Shigeo Katsu said that the subject of Kosovo’s membership was not under discussion, and that the World Bank’s activities regarding Kosovo would depend on the decision of stock-holders.

Katsu told the Itar-Tass news agency in Washington that the topic of Kosovo was not on the agenda of the upcoming spring session of either the World Bank or the IMF’s administrative bodies on April 12-13 [2008].