• Kurti meets Hamza, as deadline for election of President is approaching (RFE)
• Osmani meets Rubio: Kosovo and US bound by shared commitment to defend peace (all media)
• Osmani thanks Stubb for Finland’s steadfast support for Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic future (media)
• Rama on special court: I believe new awareness-raising will have an impact on presiding panel (RTK)
• Janjic: Division or Association in Kosovo doesn’t resolve issues of Serbs (KTV)
• Kosovo and Ukraine explore cooperation paths despite no diplomatic relations (Prishtina Insight)
• KLA veteran: 'Life is hard in Kosovo but we are free.'  (DW)

Kurti meets Hamza, as deadline for election of President is approaching (RFE)

All news websites reported on Sunday that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti met Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) leader Bedri Hamza, in what Radio Free Europe calls the beginning of Kurti’s efforts to reach an agreement on the election of the President in order to avoid new elections. The President needs to be elected the latest by March 4, as the mandate of President Vjosa Osmani expires in late April. Osmani is seeking another five-year mandate in office.

Kurti said after meeting Hamza: “we concluded that cooperation is necessary being that at least 2/3 of votes in the Assembly are needed for a successful vote”.

News websites also report that Kurti will meet Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) leader Lumir Abdixhiku today.

Koha notes in its coverage that opposition leaders have expressed their readiness for talks on the matter but that they also want a unifying candidate for the post of President.

Osmani meets Rubio: Kosovo and US bound by shared commitment to defend peace (all media)

All news websites covered Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani’s meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Department of State. Osmani said that “Kosovo and the United States are bound by a shared commitment to defend peace and to secure a safer future for generations to come”. “I was honored by the warm welcome at the U.S. Department of State by Secretary Rubio, where we discussed concrete steps to further strengthen our alliance and advance priorities of vital importance to our people. Shoulder to shoulder with the United States, we remain steadfast in strengthening peace and security, addressing shared global challenges, and advancing Kosovo’s irreversible path toward Euro-Atlantic integration,” Osmani said in a social media post.

Rubio said in a post on X that he “thanked Osmani and the people of Kosovo for their commitment to peace and stability by being a founding member of the Board of Peace. I also thanked President Osmani for her contributions to the International Stabilization Force in Gaza”.

Osmani thanks Stubb for Finland’s steadfast support for Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic future (media)

Most news websites report that Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani spoke with Finnish President Alexander Stubb. “We discussed the latest political and security developments, as well as the partnership between our two countries. I thanked him for Finland’s steadfast support for Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic future,” Osmani said in a post on X.

Rama on special court: I believe new awareness-raising will have an impact on presiding panel (RTK)

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, in his latest podcast, commented on the statement he made about the trial against former KLA leaders while addressing the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington D.C. “I believe that the new awareness-raising about that court which until today showed no democratic standard and where the prosecution failed to prove that the KLA was a criminal enterprise … will impact the responsibility of the presiding panel which must choose between justice for Kosovo and the shame of those that want to stain Kosovo and the innocence of the liberators,” he argued.

Janjic: Division or Association in Kosovo doesn’t resolve issues of Serbs (KTV)

Most news websites cover an interview that Serbian sociologist and long-time civil society activist Dusan Janjic had with Veton Surroi’s podcast aired on Sunday, highlighting his opposition to the ideas for redefinition of ethnic borders and the ethnic territorialization through the Association of Serb-majority municipalities. Janjic said that there was also a third project – the division of Kosovo along the Iber river, but this too, he argued would not resolve the issues of Serbs. “The majority of Serbs live south of the Iber river, including in Gracanica,” he said, adding that a territorial division would not include the demographic reality on the ground.

Janjic also argued that building a state on ethnic basis is not sustainable. “You cannot build a state on ethnic basis. The state is made by statehood,” he said, adding that identity, culture and language can be developed even without exclusively territorial projects.

Commenting on the Association of Serb-majority municipalities, Janjic said it is not an applicable model in Kosovo because of demographic changes and the initial political concept that characterized the idea. He said at the very start, behind the Association was a political idea that went beyond the framework of local self-management. “Demography is a changeable category,” he said, explaining that the definition of Serb-majority municipalities can change in time making the model unsustainable.

Janjic also said that if the Association were to have executive competencies, then it should include representatives of the Albanian community in areas where they are in minority, I order to avoid exclusion and institutional blockade.

Kosovo and Ukraine explore cooperation paths despite no diplomatic relations (Prishtina Insight)

Kosovo and Ukraine do not have diplomatic relations, nor do they recognize each other’s statehood, however, this has not stopped cooperation and aid at the humanitarian level, the Representative of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Western Balkans, told Prishtina Insight.

In the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has intensified attacks on energy infrastructure, often leaving Ukrainians without electricity or water. After repeated strikes, Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih and other cities found themselves on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Because of the blackout, electric generators have become as integral a part of life as warm socks, a power bank, a headlamp, or candles.

The first batch of diesel generators from Kosovo arrived in Ukraine back in 2022, with the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war. And this is far from the only example of support and cooperation between the two countries.

“Even without official diplomatic relations, Kosovo and Ukraine are finding ways for joint business and humanitarian projects,” Ruslan Tsilvik, the Permanent Representative in Kosovo of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Western Balkans, told Prishtina Insight.

A new stage in relations

The entry point for Ukrainian business into the Balkans was Albania, where Tsilvik has been representing the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry since 2021. Later, he became convinced that the Kosovo market was no less promising and open to partnership.

Read more at: https://shorturl.at/tuQnf

KLA veteran: 'Life is hard in Kosovo but we are free.'  (DW)

Gezim Haxhimusa fought in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). This month, he celebrated independence day by protesting against a trial in The Hague. Four KLA leaders are in the dock for war crimes.

Haxhimusa's house is located in the mountain village of Doganaj in the southeast of Kosovo. It is a two-story family home with a garden with old fruit trees in front and fields behind. The winter sun shines brightly onto the facade and windows.

It is warm in the living room. On the table are photos from another time: young men in uniform, barely older than 20, with serious expressions on their faces. Haxhimusa runs his fingers over one of the pictures. "That was us," he says quietly.

The 58-year-old ethnic Albanian was once a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanian separatist militia that fought against the Serbian police and the Yugoslav Army in the Kosovo War at the end of the 1990s.

But these days he leads a quiet life with his family. Today, he is sitting on the sofa next to his wife Vjollca. His daughters Zana and Gresa come into the room from time to time, as does his son-in-law Fisnik.

As a young man, Haxhimusa was jailed after being accused of being a terrorist. During Slobodan Milesovic's dictatorship, he lived on the margins of society like most ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. And in 1998, he joined the KLA.

Read more at: https://shorturl.at/VeukF