Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-04-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of President Obama’s statement on 26 March that Kosovo only left Serbia after a referendum was organised”.”

Baroness Warsi

The point that President Obama was making is that the situations in Crimea and Kosovo are not comparable. Kosovo’s independence followed a humanitarian crisis, nearly nine years of UN administration, and the failure of a long period of inclusive, internationally sponsored negotiations on Kosovo’s final status. Kosovo thus declared independence only after other options were exhausted, and by the decision of a parliament that had been assembled through a free and fair vote conducted under UN supervision. None of these conditions apply in Crimea.