The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, told TV Kljan that the Kosovo government is working on new recognitions of Kosovo’s independence and that he recently sent a letter to one country on this issue, not wanting to reveal which one, because, as he says, “Serbia has a network of embassies and a foreign service that is more powerful than Kosovo’s”.
Speaking about the recognition of Kosovo’s independence by the five EU countries that have not done so yet, Kurti said that Kosovo’s allies have helped a lot in this regard. He added that, so far, he has not written to those countries with a request to recognize the independence of Kosovo.
“Intermediaries and allied countries help us a lot and I believe that it is better to go indirectly in terms of having the five EU countries progress towards recognizing independence. This is simply out of our hands and I don’t believe it would help if we wrote to them immediately after the agreement… These are sensitive lobbying issues. If I tell you who I wrote to last week, I will do harm, because Serbia will immediately contact the authorities in those countries. Serbia has a much stronger network of embassies and foreign services than we do,” said Kurti.
He also that new recognitions do not depend entirely on Kosovo and pointed out that if Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić expressed a desire to come to Kosovo, he will not get permission to do so from the Kosovo authorities. “A man like Vučić, who questions the massacre in Račak and considers it a fabrication, is a persona non grata in Kosovo,” Kurti added.
Agreement with Serbia
Kurti went on to say that Kosovo and Serbia have reached an agreement.
“There is an agreement in place. It was concluded in Brussels and Ohrid and it is legally binding. This agreement was also adopted by the EU,” Kurti added.
He repeated that he did not support the Open Balkans initiative.
“I haven’t changed my mind. As far as I know, Open Balkans does not even have a website. This is an initiative that has neither a platform, nor a basic contract, nor a strategy, nor an action plan and it is not according to the EU rules,” Kurti concluded.
(Blic, 31.03.2023)