• Kosovo leaders support Trump’s actions in Venezuela (media)
• Balkan States give divided reactions to US strike on Venezuela (BIRN)
• Hollaj slams Vucic for remarks over US intervention in Venezuela (media)
• Kurti says three steps need to be made first before moving to President issue (media)
• Vetevendosje sets new record of votes, Kurti most voted candidate ever (AP)
• Botsan-Kharchenko: Solution for Kosovo under auspices of UN Security Council (Kosovo Online)

Kosovo leaders support Trump’s actions in Venezuela (media)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said in a post on X that Kosovo stands firmly with the United States and President Donald Trump in support of its actions “against Venezuela’s narco-terror regime.” “President Trump stood with the people of Venezuela and stood up to Maduro’s narco-state — protecting America and the rest of the world from cartels and organized crime. This is what strength and American leadership look like. The Venezuelan people deserve freedom, democracy, and a future governed by law, not fear. Narco-terrorism and authoritarian rule threaten peace far beyond national borders. Kosovo understands the impact of American resolve — our own liberation is a testament to it. At a moment when the U.S. is confronting tyranny in Venezuela, we should all reinforce this stance, because the transatlantic community is strongest when united behind American leadership and shared values. When America leads, we proudly stand together — because our collective freedom depends on it,” Osmani said.

Kosovo caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in a Facebook post that Kosovo supports the US anti-narcotic operation led by President Trump in Venezuela. “Holding state actors involved in drug trafficking accountable is essential for success in the fight against this phenomenon. Kosovo, as a strategic ally of the US and NATO, offers full support in the fight against narcotics trafficking and against the suppression of western democratic values by proxies that oppose these values, both in our region and beyond. In this respect, we reiterate the need for increased attention to certain regional actors that continuously aim to provoke the security situation through hybrid, criminal, terrorist and military actions,” Kurti said.

Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) leader Ramush Haradinaj said that Maduro’s arrest is an important example of the global leadership of the United States and clear proof that no one is above the universal principles of the rule of law. He said that the US, under the leadership of President Trump, are reaffirming their commitment not to tolerate any regime that survives through sponsoring, cooperating or partnering with international organized crime.

Balkan States give divided reactions to US strike on Venezuela (BIRN)

Political leaders in Albania and Kosovo, both vocal allies of Washington, spoke out strongly in support of the United States attack on Venezuela on Saturday – but other states urged a return to calm or gave no immediate response.

Albania’s Foreign Minister Elisa Spiropali said in a statement on X that her country “unequivocally stands with the United States” and President Donald Trump in their action against what she described as “Venezuela’s narco-terrorist regime”.

Spiropali also said that Albania supports US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s “strong leadership” in “confronting authoritarianism, corruption, and transnational criminal networks”.

Venezuela’s authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro, who was captured by US forces along with his wife during the military strike and may now be tried in the US, has denied leading a narcotics cartel that ships drugs to the US – which Trump has claimed as a justification for intervention.

In Kosovo, President Vjosa Osmani also said that her country “stands firmly with the United States” and Trump.

“President Trump stood with the people of Venezuela and stood up to Maduro’s narco-state – protecting America and the rest of the world from cartels and organised crime. This is what strength and American leadership look like,” Osmani wrote on X.

Kosovo partly owes its independence to NATO and US military intervention against Serbian forces in 1999.

“Kosovo understands the impact of American resolve – our own liberation is a testament to it,” Osmani said. Venezuela is one of the countries that has not recognised Kosovo.

Turkey, which under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has maintained good ties both with Trump and with Venezuelan leader Maduro, called for calm.

“Turkey attaches importance to the stability of Venezuela and to the peace and wellbeing of the people of Venezuela,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry called on all parties to “exercise restraint in order to prevent the current situation from leading to adverse consequences for regional and international security”. Its statement did not mention the capture of Maduro by US forces.

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

Hollaj slams Vucic for remarks over US intervention in Venezuela (media)

Several news websites report that Learta Hollaj, Chief of Staff to Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, reacted to a statement by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who after the US intervention in Venezuela said that “International public law no longer exists, and the UN order exists only on paper”. Hollaj said that Vucic’s remarks “are not incidental rhetoric, but rather clear political signaling”. She also argued that “taken together, anti-U.S. narratives on Venezuela, praise for Maduro, and militarization framed as defense against Western-aligned neighbors show that this is not the voice of an ally. This is a leader choosing sides. It is open criticism toward U.S. leadership and rhetorical convergence with sanctioned strongmen. This is the real face of Serbia’s foreign policy, revealed every time it matters, when choices matter and alignments can no longer be hidden”.

Kurti says three steps need to be made first before moving to President issue (media)

Most news websites cover an interview that Kosovo caretaker Prime Minister and Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti gave to Kosovapress news agency highlighting his remarks that after the certification of election results, the new Kosovo Assembly needs to be constituted first, followed by the formation of the new government and the adoption of the budget, and then move on to the issue of the Kosovo President. “If we don’t manage to elect the President or reelect the President, and the last deadline for this is March 4, and if we do not first adopt the budget for 2026, we cannot even go to new elections. Because certainly there is a possibility not only theoretical but practical too that we will go to elections again if we cannot reelect the President. But we need to be ready for this situation, precisely by passing the budget. This is why I am saying that it is not healthy to talk about the fourth step, without taking the first three steps first,” he argued.

Kurti, whose party won over 50 percent of votes in the December 28 parliamentary elections, said he needs to meet with President Vjosa Osmani and discuss the issue. “We have seen the statement by the President. First, we need to constitute the Assembly and the new government. We also need to vote on the budget. I believe these are the most important steps. There are three steps before we can get to the reelection of the President. I believe that during these three steps we will see what the chances are for moving forward. I have said that it is important to meet with the President and to discuss everything. We need to meet because getting 80 people in the [Assembly] room is a considerable difficulty. You saw last time that we could not get even 61. 80 is a much bigger number than 61. And while we have 61 this time, we still don’t have 80. The international agreements that we are trying to adopt as soon as possible, I believe, will also give us an indication about the way ahead. But I don’t believe it is fair or useful to talk about the fourth step without taking the first three steps”.

Kurti said that they will form the new government after the certification of election results. “As soon as the Central Election Committee certifies the results, we are interested in the tenth legislative to be constituted as soon as possible, including the presidency of the Assembly, and to form the government of the Republic. The most important decision is the budget for 2026. There are also several other important decisions for the first session, but the most important is the budget,” he said.

Asked about potential partners for co-governance, Kurti said that priority will be given to non-majority non-Serb political parties, with whom the Vetevendosje Movement cooperated in the previous mandates, including the Serb political party led by Nenad Rasic. He said that cooperation with some other parties has become more difficult in 2025, but he did not rule it out completely.  “We will very soon see about the communication and cooperation with other parties, because we are going to have to adopt the international agreements. It is very important not to run late with the €880 million from the EU Growth Plan, of which two thirds are loans, and one third are grants. Meanwhile, there are also €90 million from the World Bank in support of the budget. There are also €20 million for kindergartens, and another €20 million for the healthcare information system. So very soon we will see if we can cooperate with the opposition with regards to the international agreements. Whereas in terms of the government, there will be no problems with swiftly forming the government,” he said.

On relations with the United States, Kurti said all foreign policy officials of Kosovo are working intensively to lift the suspension of the strategic dialogue with the United States. “Plannings and preparations for the strategic dialogue were suspended. We are working intensively with all our state channels and all state officials involved in foreign policy. We are in regular communication with the US Embassy here in Pristina, to explain all outstanding issues, and to have excellent diplomatic relations, same as our relations in defense and security and also in development and energy, especially now that the MCC program has been extended. We will get US$ 202 million as a grant, not a loan, a grant from the United States of America for batteries with a 170-megawatt capacity, and in two hours they can accumulate 340 megawatt-hours, because renewable energy will continue to be in the focus of our strategy. An additional 1,300 megawatts by 2031,” he said.

On the dialogue with Serbia, Kurti said he will insist on signing the Basic Agreement from Brussels and the Ohrid implementation annex, which were agreed in 2023. He also said that in order for dialogue to resume, Milan Radoicic, who claimed responsibility for the attack in Banjska in September 2023, will have to be handed over to Kosovo’s authorities. “We are in favor of the full implementation [of the agreements], but we also said that they need to be signed so that we can have legal guarantees and an expression of good will. Serbia refused to do so, although the European Union, as the facilitator welcomes the Brussels Agreement and the Ohrid implementation annex. For dialogue to resume, we will need to implement the agreements. And we need for Milan Radoicic, the chief terrorist who killed our police sergeant, the hero of Kosovo, Afrim Bunjaku, to be handed over to the security mechanisms in Kosovo, because there is a 160-page indictment by the Special Prosecution against Radoicic and 44 other paramilitaries, who wanted to start a wide conflict in Banjska in Zvecan, hoping that it would provoke an intervention by Serbia to annex the north of Kosovo. They failed. They also failed when they blew up the Iber Lepenci water canal, for which there is also an indictment. And they will fail every single time. The agreement on good neighborly relations, based on the Basic Agreement in Brussels and the Ohrid implementation annex, cannot move forward while Milan Radoicic, as we speak now, is closer to [Serbian President] Vucic than his own close protection,” he said.

On membership in the Council of Europe, NATO and the European Union, Kurti said Kosovo will do its homework. “Our objective is without a doubt to join the Council of Europe. Kosovo has met all its obligations. The fact that we have passed by 82 percent at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe shows that Kosovo has done its part. Now there are some skeptical countries that are using their influence. Meanwhile, I believe that as a country we will join NATO first and then the European Union. We will do all we can in order to move forward quickly. But in terms of the European Union, we need to get the questionnaire first from the European Commission, because we applied for membership three years ago and we need the candidate status. We used to be the only country without visa liberalization, and we got this last mandate. Now we are the only country that doesn’t have the candidate status and we need to get this too,” he said.

Vetevendosje sets new record of votes, Kurti most voted candidate ever (AP)

The Kurti-led Vetevendosje Movement has set a record in votes won in the December 28 parliamentary elections. Based on the counting so far, VV has over 447,000 votes, becoming the first political party in Kosovo to ever reach this figure, and which translates into around 50 percent of the total vote. VV has beaten its earlier record from February 2021 when it got 438,335 votes. Vetevendosje leader and candidate for Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, has become the most voted candidate in the history of elections in Kosovo, by getting over 367,000 votes. The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) is ranked second after the December 28 elections with over 185,000 votes, followed by the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) in third place with over 120,000 votes. The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) has secured around 50,000 votes.

In a different article related to the same topic, the news website quotes Eugen Cakolli from the Pristina-based Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) as saying that the most realistic scenario is that VV will have 57 MPs (at least 17 female MPs) in the new Assembly, PDK 22 (at least 7 female MPs), LDK 15 (at least 5 female MPs) and the AAK with six seats (at least 2 female MPs).

Botsan-Kharchenko: Solution for Kosovo only under auspices of UN Security Council (Kosovo Online)

Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko emphasized that a solution for Kosovo can be achieved only under the auspices of the UN Security Council.

Speaking to RIA Novosti, he said it is obvious that all attempts by the EU to act as a mediator were doomed to failure from the very beginning.

“This is because a party that recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed Kosovo, contrary to international law and UN Security Council Resolution 1244, cannot be a mediator in the normalization of relations, a fair mediator, as they like to say, between Belgrade and Pristina,” Botsan-Kharchenko said, RT Balkan reports.

He added that “this is why negotiations on this issue under the auspices of the EU are completely ineffective and produce no results.”

“I do not expect them to produce anything, but the only path, truly, toward a complete solution, toward respect for Resolution 1244, is linked to the work of the UN Security Council,” Botsan-Kharchenko underlined.