“We will make a joint military unit with the Armed Forces of the Republic of Albania,” said two days ago Kosovo’s prime minister in technical mandate, Albin Kurti, at the session of the Main Board of Self-Determination, held in Pristina. From Belgrade, they say that this is a “direct threat to Serbia.”
Kurti presented a comprehensive plan for strengthening the Kosovo army and international partnerships, while Kosovo has already been in a deep political-constitutional crisis for the ninth month – since the parliamentary elections on February 9th, neither the Assembly nor the Government has been formed.
“For our army, in four years of the next mandate, we will allocate a budget of over one billion euros,” said Kurti, announcing the functionalization of the ammunition factory, the development, as he stated, of the military industry, and accelerated recruitment of new cadets, with the special goal that the army includes 1.000 women and girls.
He also announced the implementation of the program “comprehensive defense.”
“Within this program, every voluntary reservist will have appropriate training and armament in case of mobilization,” stated Kurti.
Speaking about foreign policy and security, he stated that Kosovo “will double the network of military attaches and increase the number of partner states with which it signs SOFA agreements” as steps towards full membership in NATO.
“Further, we will strengthen strategic relations with the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, and all the member states of the European Union (EU) and NATO,” stated the Kosovo prime minister.
He also recalled the request for EU membership submitted in 2022:
“We will expand and deepen bilateral relations with the non-recognizing states, with special emphasis on the non-recognizing states of NATO, the EU, and the Council of Europe. As you know, on December 15th, 2022, we officially submitted a request for membership in the EU with the aim of obtaining candidate status in Prague, in the Czech Republic, when it presided over the EU. Our goal is that by 2030, our country successfully completes all chapters of the integration process, towards EU membership.”
In the same speech, Kurti also emphasized that Kosovo, led by his government, “successfully dealt with the biggest and fiercest attacks of Serbian structures since the declaration of independence.”
Petkovic: Direct threat to Serbia
A day later, acting director of the Serbian Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, reacted.
“The military alliance of the so-called Kosovo Security Forces (KSF) and the Armed Forces of Albania, whose formation is announced by Albin Kurti, is a direct threat to Serbia and the Serbian people, which is the axis of the policy of the Pristina regime, which with every move of its targets Belgrade and is a new step towards the formation of the so-called Greater Albania,” stated Petkovic.
Petkovic criticized Kurti’s moves as an attempt to escalate the conflict.
On the transformation of the KSF
The KSF is in the process of transition or transformation into, as it is presented to the Kosovo public, an army. The process began in December 2018 with the adoption of a set of three laws: the Law on the Service Rules of KSF Members, the Law on the Transformation of the Ministry of the KSF into the Ministry of Defense, and the Law on the Transformation of the KSF into the Armed Forces of Kosovo.
The Serb List at that time did not use the legal deadline to submit an appeal to the Constitutional Court despite announcements that it would do so. However, they said that they would stand “barehanded” in front of the people to “defend them.”
The KSF cannot go to the north, because it is prevented by a special agreement between Kosovo and NATO from 2013, in which Pristina commits that – every entry of KSF members into the north of the country must be carried out with the approval of the Kosovo Force (KFOR) mission commander.
Nevertheless, these units, with the permission of the KFOR commander, stayed in the north in August, in order to recover the body of a drowned person.
And while NATO member states maintain cooperation with the KSF, and recently their representatives officially met with the KSF commander, the Alliance formally does not support the transformation of the KSF into the Kosovo army.
Namely, at the beginning of July, another country officially recognized the Kosovo military attache, and that was Belgium. As the local media reports, it is expected that Kosovo will now open a military representation there, N1 writes.
