Kosovo Using British Firm for Status Talks

FOCUS ENGLISH NEWS (BULGARIA), 12 October 2006 12:13

London/Pristina/Brussels. Kosovo's government, which does not have its own diplomacy, is using a British company offering professional diplomatic services, Serbian radio station B92 informs.

The Kosovo Albanians are certain that they are in a much more unfavorable position in the status talks because they do not have a Foreign Ministry and an embassy network all over the world. They have hired 'Independent Diplomat'  - a company defined by its founders as the first non-government diplomatic consultancy firm in the world. The firm was founded by two former officials of the British Foreign Office.

In the last few weeks BBC journalist Tim Franks was granted exclusive access to the company's meetings with the Kosovo representatives who are holding the talks on the region's future status, B92 notes. The journalist was also present at the departure of company representatives for Pristina where they would inform the leaders of the Kosovo Albanians that the signals coming in from the UK, France, the USA and Russia as well as those from the UN show that Kosovo's final status will not be decided on by the end of this year.