{"id":18040,"date":"2023-10-01T12:28:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T09:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=18040"},"modified":"2023-10-03T14:21:40","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T11:21:40","slug":"nato-to-boost-presence-in-kosovo-amid-serbias-military-buildup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/nato-to-boost-presence-in-kosovo-amid-serbias-military-buildup\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO to boost presence in Kosovo amid Serbia\u2019s military buildup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NATO has authorized the deployment of additional forces under its peacekeeping mission in Kosovo fearing a violent conflict between Pristina and Belgrade. Serbia is ramping up its military presence at the Kosovo northern border.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kosovo\u2019s Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that his administration welcomes NATO\u2019s decision to deploy additional forces under the peacekeeping mission in the country\u2019s volatile northern region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need NATO because the border with Serbia is very long and the Serbian army has been recently strengthening its capacities,\u201d Kurti said during an interview. He also emphasized that his country lacks the ability to compete with the Serbian forces due to their modern military equipment. \u201cThey have a lot of military equipment from both the Russian Federation and China,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following NATO\u2019s announcement about the deployment of additional forces under the KFOR, the United Kingdom\u2019s Ministry of Defense said it had transferred command of a battalion of troops to the alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NATO-led peacekeeping mission Kosovo Force (KFOR) is responsible for maintaining stability in the country\u2019s northern region, which has an ethnic Serb majority in terms of population and ethnic Albian leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new wave of violence erupted in Kosovo\u2019s Serb-majority northern regions earlier this year after the smaller minority representatives were elected to the mayoral posts and assemblies. The votes were largely boycotted by the ethnic Serbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of the violent uprising in the region, Serbia started to build up its military forces around the country\u2019s borders. The move was heavily criticized by Kosovo and its Western allies who accused Serbia of meddling with Kosovo\u2019s internal affairs and orchestrating the violence in the country\u2019s northern province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
U.S. KFOR soldiers stand guard in front of the municipality office, while ethnic Serbs gather to protest, in the town of Leposavic, Kosovo, on May 29, 2023. (Image Credit: Reuters\/Valdrin Xhemaj)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed a \u201clarge military deployment\u201d of Serbian tanks and artillery was present on Kosovo\u2019s border. He described the buildup as \u201ca very destabilizing development\u201d and called on Serbia to withdraw these forces. Kirby added that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had called Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to urge \u201cimmediate de-escalation\u201d and a return to dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe secretary underscored that those responsible for the attacks who are now in Serbia must be held accountable,\u201d the U.S. State Department said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Serbia-Kosovo conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kosovo, once a Serbian province, declared its independence in 2008 a decade after the 1998-1999 war. Most of Kosovo\u2019s population consists of the Albanian ethnic groups, while Serbs account for the second largest ethnicity in the country. Half of Kosovo\u2019s Serb population lives in the northern part and refuses to recognize Kosovo\u2019s independence making it one of the most volatile regions in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After NATO\u2019s intervention in 1999, Serbia completely pulled out from Kosovo but refused to recognize its independence. NATO established the KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo which largely operates in the country\u2019s northern parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU, NATO, and the U.S. have pushed for years to broker a lasting peace between Kosovo and Serbia, but a deal has remained elusive amid continued divisions over the status of northern Kosovo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Polish soldiers, part of the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo KFOR, pass through barricades as they patrol near the northern Kosovo border crossing of Jarinje, along the Kosovo-Serbia border, on October 2, 2021. (Image Credit: Visar Kryeziu\/AP)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NATO has authorized the deployment of additional forces under its peacekeeping mission in Kosovo fearing a violent conflict between Pristina and Belgrade. Serbia is ramping up its military presence at the Kosovo northern border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,1],"tags":[24,357,584,5,59,20,113,326],"class_list":["post-18040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-kosovo","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-security","tag-serbia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/NATO-peacekeeping-soldiers-KFOR-in-Kosovo.jpeg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-4GY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18042,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18040\/revisions\/18042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}