PRISTINA (Reuters) – Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani has requested U.S. President Joe Biden to make use of Washington’s affect inside NATO member states to help her nation be a part of the navy alliance.
In a letter despatched to Biden dated March tenth and seen by Reuters on Thursday, Osmani mentioned that in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, joining NATO was her most important nationwide safety precedence.
“Kosovo’s membership in NATO has turn out to be an crucial,” Osmani mentioned in her letter.
“We categorical our religion and expectation that the U.S. will use its management and affect to actively assist and advance the complicated strategy of NATO membership for Kosovo,” Osmani wrote.
Washington stays Kosovo’s most important supporter, each politically and financially, for the reason that small Balkan nation declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
“We are uncovered to persistent efforts by Russia to undermine Kosovo and destabilise your entire Western Balkans,” Osmani wrote.
NATO officers didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Serbia and its conventional ally Russia don’t recognise Kosovo’s independence, and Moscow has blocked the nation’s bid to turn out to be a member of the United Nations. Belgrade considers Kosovo a part of its territory, though it has no state establishments in its former breakaway province.
However, some 50,000 Serbs who dwell in the northern a part of Kosovo bordering Serbia – and who’re backed by Belgrade – refuse to recognise Kosovo’s authorities and need partition alongside ethnic strains in order to unite with Serbia.
Kosovo has been guarded by NATO troops since 1999, when NATO resorted to bombing to halt the killing of ethnic Albanians by Serb forces in a 1998-99 counter-insurgency conflict.
The nation of 1.8 million now needs to hitch the alliance however its bid to take action could also be sophisticated. Four NATO members – Romania, Spain, Greece and Slovakia – nonetheless haven’t recognised Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.
There are presently 3,770 NATO troops in Kosovo, of whom 600 are from the United States.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
