Macedonia convened on Thursday a security meeting, getting itself prepared for any potential risk that might come out of the Kosovo issue, news reaching here from Skopje reported.
"There are no indications of serious threats to the security of Macedonia, but we are underestimating the potential risks," Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski said after the National Security Council meeting.
He asked the government to monitor closely the future development of the Kosovo issue and to take actions in time if necessary.
The council said that Macedonia supports the new round of talks on Kosovo's future status, expecting a positive outcome that would contribute lasting stability to the region.
Macedonia also urged the EU, the United States and Russia, the so-called troika, to respect the Contact Group's principles on defining Kosovo's status, including one that does not allow Kosovo division.
"Such division could only be done along ethnic lines, which would encourage many radical groups that exist in the entire region (to do the same)," Crvenkovski said.
It is feared that a partition of Kosovo between ethnic Albanians and Serbs, as suggested and later denied by the EU's envoy to the fresh Kosovo talks at the beginning of this month, could revive Albanian insurgencies in neighboring Macedonia.
Ethnic Albanians account for 25 percent of Macedonia's 2.1 million population. They mainly live in the north and west of the country.
In 2001, tensions between Macedonia's ethnic Albanians fighting for greater rights and the government forces, brought the country to the brink of a civil war which was averted with the mediation of the EU and NATO.
Source: Xinhua
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