( dpa ) - Indonesia said on Monday it was not yet in a position to recognize Kosovo as an independent nation.
"The Indonesian government will closely watch the developments in Kosovo but is not yet in a position to recognize the unilateral declaration of its independence," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Indonesian government hoped the declaration will not prompt open conflict, particularly with Serbia, and said the failure to resolve the Kosovo issue through negotiations was deplorable, the statement said.
While fully respecting the sovereignty of Serbia as a United Nations member, the statement said the Indonesian government was open to seeing Kosovo in the context of ethnic problems faced by former Yugoslav federation provinces.
Muslim-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Sunday, ending a long chapter in the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia. A decade after a bloody separatist war with Serbian forces that claimed 10,000 lives, lawmakers pronounced the territory the Republic of Kosovo and pledged to make it a "democratic, multi-ethnic state."
The United States and the European Union supported the Kosovo's independence.
Nearly 90 per cent of Indonesia's 225 million people are Muslim, making it the country with the world's largest Muslim population.