Albanian Language Media:

• Kurti talks about meetings he held in Munich (Reporteri)
• Kearns: Britain will not support the formation of Republika Srpska in Kosovo (RTK)
• Rohde: Kosovo and Germany are connected by partnership and common values (media)
• Buhler: Kosovo’s membership in NATO, after final political solution (media)
• “Only Kurti knows how he brought Kosovo to this state, he was badly ignored by Blinken” (media)
• PDK: Prosecution should interview Kurti and Haxhiu about the Dehari case (media)
• Tahiri: There is a risk that Serbia will keep Kosovo in a frozen conflict (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• Vucic: We will invest heavily in the defence industry, military (N1, Beta)
• Podcast: Nenezic on expropriation: In a perfect world, these decisions would be rejected, bases demolished, and works suspended (KoSSev)
• Vucic discusses Kosovo with Blinken, Scholz, Macron (N1, BETA)
• US State Secretary: Productive conversation with Vucic (N1, social media)
• Lajcak on CSM: Assumed obligations must be fulfilled (Politika, BETA)
• Dveri calls on patriots to unite on Kosovo, Russia issues (media)
• Vucic: We have new note of Kosovo derecognition (Tanjug)
• Trajkovic, Jovic and Ristic sent joint letter to Patriarch (KoSSev, N1)
• Marinkovic: About 40,000 Serbs left Kosovo in the last ten years (NMagazin, N1, KiM radio, Beta)

International:

• Putin is attempting to destabilise European countries to divert attention from Ukraine, warns Kosovo’s president (Sky News)

Albanian Language Media  

Kurti talks about meetings he held in Munich (Reporteri)

Prime Minister Albin Kurti has announced the meetings he held on the second and last day of the Security Conference in Munich.

He has announced that he has met the Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Simonyte, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy Antonio Tajani, the Commander of the NATO Joint Forces Command in Naples Admiral Stuart Munsch, and U.S. congressmen and former congressmen.

“The implications that have had and the dangers that the Russian invasion and aggression in Ukraine continue to pose for the continent, in particular the Western Balkans, and the friendship, partnership and alliance between Kosovo and the USA, were the topics that we discussed together with the American congressmen , Mike Turner, Michael McCaul, Jake Ellzey, Rich McCormick and Darrell Issa,” Kurti wrote, among others.

Kearns: Britain will not support the formation of Republika Srpska in Kosovo (RTK)

Great Britain will not support the formation of Republika Srpska in Kosovo, said the chair of the Committee on Foreign Policy of the British Parliament, Alicia Kearns, commenting on the French-German plan for Serbia and Kosovo, the aim of which is the normalisation of relations between the two parties.

“The ambiguity of the language in the [French-German] plan is problematic. There is talk of self-government. What does it mean? Does this mean water, electricity and gas branch, or does self-government mean separate governing structures? We should not allow Republika Srpska in Kosovo,” Kearns told Al Jazeera. 

“We are aware that this leads to the consolidation of ethno-nationalism and does not lead to unity,” she added.

According to Kearns, Great Britain remains absolutely committed to stability in the Western Balkans, as well as “not to be hindered in the entrenchment of ethno-nationalism”.

Kearns says she has spoken with the Foreign Minister of Kosovo.

“There are good aspects of the French-German-American plan, but the formation of a Serbian enclave is something that we, Great Britain, were very clear, do not support.”

Rohde: Kosovo and Germany are connected by partnership and common values (media)

The German ambassador to Kosovo Jorn Rohde has written about the anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations through the official recognition of Kosovo as an independent state from Germany.

“On this day, 15 years ago, Germany and Kosovo established diplomatic relations through the official recognition of the Republic of Kosovo as an independent state,” he wrote on Twitter.

“What binds us is not only a close partnership, but a true friendship based on common values and close ties between our people. It is an honour to serve this friendship as German ambassador,” he said.

Buhler: Kosovo’s membership in NATO, after final political solution (media)

The former German commander of KFOR, Ehard Buhler, in an interview for Express, spoke about the possibility of Kosovo joining NATO.

“I want to give an honest answer. Most likely this will only happen when a final political solution is found. Remember that we still have countries in NATO that have not yet recognized the Republic of Kosovo,” he said.

Further, Buhler said that NATO membership should be the future for all Western Balkan states.

“On the other hand, NATO membership should be the future for all Western Balkan states. Of course, the Kosovar Minister of Defense is doing an excellent job in seeking cooperation with NATO whenever possible, even below the membership threshold, and at the same time is building the Kosovo Army according to NATO standards. This is the right and pragmatic way for the transition period,” he further stated.

“Only Kurti knows how he brought Kosovo to this state, he was badly ignored by Blinken” (media)

The head of the Parliamentary Group of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Abelard Tahiri, said that the current position of Kosovo vis-à-vis the United States of America is disturbing.

“It is very disturbing to us that this government administration has been badly ignored by the State Department, by Secretary Antony Blinken, during this conference in Munich. The visits, both of Prime Minister Kurti and of the Serbian side in Munich, are clearly related directly to the dialogue,” Tahiri said.

“It is the first time that in this Munich Conference, the leaders of the state of Kosovo fail to meet with high-level leaders of the United States of America,” he added.

“This is a very bad signal, which is why we want to be a party at the table, as we have always been, and not a topic. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Kurti has managed to bring Kosovo back to the topic on table. This was also confirmed by secretary Blinken,” he said.

He added that “only Prime Minister Kurti knows how he brought Kosovo to this state”.

PDK: Prosecution should interview Kurti and Haxhiu about the Dehari case (media)

The Coordinator of the Department of Justice in the Cabinet for Good Governance of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Perparim Gruda, in a press conference, has asked to clarify the case of the disappearance of the samples of the Dehari Case from the Institute of Forensic Medicine.

Gruda called on the State Prosecutor’s Office to interview Prime Minister Albin Kurti and the Minister of Justice, Albulena Haxhiu, after the public release of new facts and the government’s interventions in this case.

“The Dehari case is a tragic case, which cannot continue to be politicised, that is why we ask the state prosecutor to interview Prime Minister Kurti and Minister Haxhiu to finally find out who and how the samples of the Dehari case disappeared, in order to reveal the full truth of this tragic case. Therefore, we demand justice for the Dehari case,” he said.

Tahiri: There is a risk that Serbia will keep Kosovo in a frozen conflict (media)

The head of the Parliamentary Group of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Besnik Tahiri, said that the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia should be reached as soon as possible, so that the dialogue process can be closed.

He stated on Monday in front of the media that there is a risk that Serbia will keep Kosovo blocked, presenting it as a party that caused problems.

Tahiri said that AAK has no information about the meeting that the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, to be held in Brussels.

“We think that the time when meetings happened for a photograph should pass. The deal should happen as soon as possible. They should put an end to this once and for all. The agreement is final, it is a contractual agreement and it is an agreement that paves the way for Kosovo. The potential danger of Kosovo is that Serbia will continue to keep Kosovo in a frozen conflict by presenting it as an unconstructive party that caused trouble,” Tahiri said.

He also expressed concern that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has not met Kosovo leaders at the Munich Conference. 

Serbian Language Media 

Vucic: We will invest heavily in the defence industry, military (N1, Beta)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said “the Serbian military needs to be much stronger” than it is at present, even though it is “incomparably stronger than it used to be.”

“We have to invest a lot of money both in the defense industry and military, I have spoken with Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and (Finance) Minister Sinisa Mali,” said Vucic who is currently in Abu Dhabi for the International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX).

The President said the plan is to procure 200 domestically manufactured heavy weapons in 2023 and 2024, which comes out to some 300 million euros, and added that Serbian arms are attracting great interest in Abu Dhabi.

Commenting on the “rampant” armament in the world, he said that Pristina is planning to acquire 100 armoured vehicles by the end of the year, partly from donations, which is “contrary to Resolution 1244 of the United Nations Security Council”.

Vucic added that the world has not seen such intensive armament in the past 70-80 years.

Podcast: Nenezic on expropriation: In a perfect world, these decisions would be rejected, bases demolished, and works suspended (KoSSev)

If the expropriation procedure in the municipality of Leposavic continues without specifications as to what is being built and talks of infamous infrastructure projects carry on, preliminary decisions should be rejected in court, legal expert Dragutin Nenezic assessed in a KoSSev portal podcast. Nenezic noted that Pristina does not respect legal procedure, and that “all of it was turned upside down“. Furthermore, he assessed everything that has been carried out so far is “equal parts problematic and scandalous“.

On the other hand, if the court does not overturn the preliminary decision, and a final decision is made, Nenezic warns of a “dismemberment of the north of Kosovo“ with new bases and checkpoints, as the lives of the locals “become unbearable“ to the extent that everyone will decide to leave.

“In a perfect world,“ he argued, the works would be stopped, everything would be demolished and special and other units would withdraw, leaving people to “live and work in peace“. This legal expert, however, doesn’t believe that this is likely to happen but expresses hope that pressure from international actors will lead to a temporary suspension of the works.

The KoSSev portal spoke to Nenezic the day after a public discussion was held in Leposavic earlier this week on the expropriation of land in this municipality.

Nenezic participated in the discussion as a representative of one of the residents of Lesak affected by the expropriation, thus joining the local legal team representing the residents of this village and the village of Dren.

Public discussions are long overdue, as is everything else in this procedure, Nenezic explained.

“A public discussion should have been held first. After a public discussion, decisions (of the Kosovo government) should have been made, and then we would have a whole sequence of events – a decision on determining the public interest, further consideration, preliminary, final decision, and only then expropriation is carried out, and then construction“, he said.

“According to the law, everything that is built constitutes illegal construction. But that doesn’t stop them from building. It only exposes the character of the system – police and an attempted military mono-ethnic dictatorship, and the people affected by the expropriation will have to suffer until this lawlessness is unseated in some way“, he added.

Read the full report at: https://bit.ly/3Emrz0F

And the second report at: https://bit.ly/3IbM2WR

Vucic discusses Kosovo with Blinken, Scholz, Macron (N1, BETA)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met at the Munich Security Conference on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Following his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Vucic said they affirmed “the improving relations” between the two countries.

“In addition to the talks on relations between Belgrade and Pristina, we affirmed the improving relations between Serbia and the USA”, Vucic wrote on Instagram next to a photo from the meeting with Blinken, which was also attended by Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic.

On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference Vucic also had a meeting Friday evening with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emanuel Macron which most probably focused on the European Union’s proposal for the normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia drafted by Macron’s and Scholtz’s advisors.

“A serious and fair meeting with the European Union’s (EU) most responsible people about the process of dialogue with Pristina, the Franco-German plan and our bilateral relations“, Vucic wrote on Instagram.

Vucic also had separate talks in Munich with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and a brief meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

US State Secretary: Productive conversation with Vucic (N1, social media)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter that he had a “productive conversation” with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic at the Munich Security Conference.

“We discussed the importance of normalized relations with Kosovo, and I conveyed our appreciation for Serbia’s continued support for Ukraine. We share Serbia’s desire for a future with the EU”, Blinken wrote on Twitter.

Lajcak on CSM: Assumed obligations must be fulfilled (Politika, BETA)

European Union’s (EU) Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak said that the Kosovo Assembly had ratified the Brussels Agreement thereby making it Kosovo international obligation.

Asked why the Community of Serb Municipalities (CSM) in Kosovo has still not been established, Lajcak told Politika daily the EU understands that this is a very sensitive issue for the Kosovo Government but that obligations must be fulfilled. He said the position of the EU, US and other international partners is that any further delay is unacceptable.

The EU is currently working on two tracks to ensure that the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue moves forward, he explained.

Lajcak said the priority is for both sides to agree on the EU proposal for the normalisation of relations. At the same time, we continue to work on ensuring a full and immediate implementation of all the elements agreed on so far in the dialogue – which remain valid and are binding for both parties, he added.

Dveri calls on patriots to unite on Kosovo, Russia issues (media)

The Serbian Dveri Movement Main Board said it supports cooperation with the other patriotic opposition political parties and associations and “called on all patriots to unite against the recognition of the fake state of Kosovo and the introduction of sanctions against Russia”, N1 reports.

“These two pressures on our country by the West, growing by the day, are the biggest foreign policy challenges this year, and they call for the creation of a broad cross-party national front that would stand up to this”,  Dveri Movement said in a statement.

The organisation identified the NADA coalition, comprising the New Democratic Party of Serbia and The Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia, the Movement for the Defense of Kosovo and Metohija, the Serb Youth for Kosovo and Metohija and other patriotic organisations as potential partners in a new patriotic block.

This bloc would be “able to prevent the damage that these new Western ultimatums would cause to Serbian national and state interests”, the statement added.  

Vucic: We have new note of Kosovo derecognition (Tanjug)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Friday in Munich that Serbia was in possession of a new note of derecognition of the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo, Tanjug news agency reports.

“But we have an agreement with that country to wait until February 23 or 24, or for about ten days, after which we will announce the name of that country” ,Vucic told Pink TV.

He said it would be the 27th or 28th derecognition of Kosovo as there was uncertainty about one country that was “on the edge”.

Trajkovic, Jovic and Ristic sent joint letter to Patriarch (KoSSev, N1)

Leader of Gracanica-based Serbian National Forum, Momcilo Trajkovic, leader of Mitrovica North-based Movement for the Defense of Kosovo and Metohija, Nebojsa Jovic and leader of the Fatherland Movement from Mitrovica North, Slavisa Ristic sent a joint letter to the Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije, expressing concerns over current situation in Kosovo, departure of Serbs from there and the future of Serb community.

“We know the Church does not engage in politics, but it has to focus on its faithful people. This is a ‘to be or not to be’ time for our people, so it is not a time for politics, but for a national struggle for the sake of national survival”, reads the letter.

“We are just sharing with you the opinion and the fears of a vast majority of Serbs in Kosovo. An absolute majority. A minority of our fellow citizens who only care about profiting from our misfortune have sided, through political engagement, with those who are against the survival of our people and our state”, said the signatories of the letter.

Marinkovic: About 40,000 Serbs left Kosovo in the last ten years (NMagazin, N1, KiM radio Beta)

Miodrag Marinkovic from the Kosovo NGO Center for Affirmative Social Actions stated that in the last ten years the number of Serbian children in primary and secondary education in Kosovo has decreased by 10,000, which indicates that around 40,000 Serbs have left the province, reported Beta news agency. 

Marinkovic told Beta that 120,000 Serbs lived in Kosovo ten years ago, and that today there are about 80,000 of them.

“According to official data from the School Administration of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia, in 2012, 25,000 Serbian students attended primary and secondary education in Kosovo and Metohija, and ten years later that number is 15,000.” So, we lost 10,000 students in ten years,” said Marinkovic.

According to him, Serbs are leaving Kosovo because of the bad security situation as well as because of the impossibility of finding employment.

“Besides the bad security situation, Serbian families leave Kosovo for economic reasons, as well as for nepotism and corruption. We have the example of one class from the Mitrovica high school, majoring in science and mathematics, where 17 of the 21 students left Kosovo after graduation. These are very worrying data,” Marinkovic said.

He added that emigration from Kosovo is ongoing, and that Serbs are moving even the bones of their dead to central Serbia.

“Serbian cemeteries continue to be desecrated, which is why Serbs increasingly decide to move the bones of their ancestors from Kosovo,” he said.

When asked by Beta where the 900 million euros goes that the Government of Serbia allocates for Kosovo every year, Marinkovic said that this money is not invested for the return of the displaced.

“Part of that money goes to salaries, and there are indications that some infrastructure is being built. I am not sure that business support programs are financed, since very little is seen on the ground. The return of the displaced has never been a priority for Belgrade or Pristina. Albanians still usurp a large part of Serbian property,” Marinkovic pointed out.

He added that the Kosovo authorities have no desire to create conditions for the return of the displaced.

“The Kosovo Ministry of Return has always been in the hands of Serbs, but the effects are more than modest. Also, the authorities in Belgrade have never insisted on creating conditions for the return of the displaced,” said Marinkovic.

Asked to comment on Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s decision to accept implementation of the Franco-German plan for solving the Kosovo issue, Marinkovic said that the advantages and disadvantages of that plan can only be defined when it is decided what rights will be given to the Serbs in Kosovo.

“If that process creates mechanisms that will help Serbs to stay in Kosovo, then that plan can be good. Now, the points of that plan mean nothing to us on the ground. It is too early to say whether that plan is good or bad,” Marinkovic said.

He pointed out that Serbia has drawn red lines, and that formal recognition of Kosovo’s independence will not be sought.

“The party in power would lose the elections if it recognized the independence of Kosovo. In the United Nations, China will be the main speaker, which will veto Kosovo’s admission to the UN due to the problem with Taiwan, as well as Russia, which will continue to oppose the West through Kosovo,” concluded Marinkovic, reported Serbian media, citing Beta.

International 

Putin is attempting to destabilise European countries to divert attention from Ukraine, warns Kosovo’s president (Sky News)

Speaking exclusively to Sky News at the Munich Security Conference, Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani has accused the Russian president of attempting to export conflict to her country and others including Moldova and Georgia.

On the eve of the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine there are ominous warnings the Ukraine conflict could widen and draw in other countries.

And there are very real fears Vladimir Putin is stepping up efforts to destabilise countries from Moldova to the Western Balkans.

That was the focus of an exclusive interview with Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani at the Munich Security Conference.

“What he’s trying to do is to divert the attention of the West away from Ukraine,” she told Sky News.

“The way he would be able to do that is by creating other conflicts in Europe, whether we’re talking about Moldova, Georgia or the Western Balkans.”

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3IDMBuf