Following Croatia, Slovenia and Albania, which have become fully flagged members of NATO, Montenegro will soon find itself there. NATO will, as was announced yesterday by the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, continue to be focused on Western Balkans since this region is important for NATO. In Washington however, work on further expansion of influence of NATO in this region. Thus, the US Congress, two days ago, adopted the amendment which calls on the US administration to accept Kosovo in the Partnership for Peace Program.
The news which was welcomed by Kosovo Albanians was fist posted on the Twitter account by the Kosovo Ambassador to Washington, Vlora Çitaku. Commenting this information, Kosovo’s President, Hashim Thaçi announced that Kosovo security forces will be transformed into Kosovo armed forces as soon as possible.
However, the obstacle to such plans of Pristina are Serbian MPs in the Kosovo Assembly who are against the creation of the Kosovo army. However, armed forces of Kosovo can be created only by decision of the Assembly and for this they need votes of nom-majority communities.
Jelena Milić and Bogoljub Milosavljevic were asked by Politika to comment on this and they both agreed that this decision is politically motivated. However, they don’t share the same stance about what lays behind this decision. The director of the Center for Euro-Atlantic studies, Jelena Milić, assessed that this decision is good one which means that the US has assessed that without a communication of all partners in this region this part of the Europe, due to migration of refugees and risks from terrorism, could become a big security challenge. However, the professor at the Faculty of Law at Union University in Belgrade, Bogoljub Milosavljević, opines that the US Congress has ‘little bit’ meddled into the politics and with this decision entered in the competences of the Nato leadership.
“It is about the sort of steps that Serbia wished the least, which is, its (Kosovo’s) membership in international institutions. The main goal is undermining the UN (SC) Resolution 1244,” argues Milosavljević.
Partnership for Peace Program is the last step that any state, which is not NATO member, can reach with this military-political alliance. Any state that wants to become a member of the Partnership for Peace Program, and NATO too, doesn’t have to be the member of the United Nations, thus, formally there are no obstacles for Kosovo either to become member of this organization.
Milosavljević however assessed that there are small chances for Kosovo to become member of the Partnership for Peace Program without creating an army in the first place.
Minister for Communities and Return in the Kosovo government, Dalibor Jevtić, said to Politika that he has learned from Pristina-based media that Kosovo is close to signing the Partnership for Peace membership. “In order for this to happen, the army of Kosovo should be created, and we, the Serbs, won’t agree to this, thus this is the bill made without a waiter,” explained Jevtić.
