Kosovo’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Skender Hyseni will travel to France on Tuesday for a two-day visit. Hyseni will meet his French counterpart, Bernard Cazeneueve, MP Gosselin Fleuy, Director for Continental Europe, Eric Fournier, and director of the Directorate for Foreigners in France, Luc Derepas.

Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama met in Tirana today his Kosovo counterpart, Isa Mustafa. This is Prime Minister Mustafa’s first official visit to Albania since taking on his post. The two prime ministers spoke about strengthening economic cooperation and the upcoming joint meeting of the two governments. In a press conference after the meeting, Mustafa expressed appreciation for valuable support Albania has provided to Kosovo. He said Kosovo needs new recognitions.

The government of Kosovo nominated on Thursday three additional deputy ministers; Besa Zogaj, at the Ministry for Economic Development, Rita Hajzeraj, the Ministry of Work and Social Welfare and Vazir Jonuzaj, at the Ministry of Agriculture. The spokesperson of the government, Arban Abrashi, confirmed the news.

The government of Kosovo has not completed the process of the nomination of deputy ministers yet.

Representatives of the civil society have requested from the Assembly of Kosovo to discuss with the Serbian List their return to the Assembly, as soon as possible. They assessed Assembly’s start of the new season as very weak.

The chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Enver Hoxhaj, Kosovo Security Force Minister Haki Demolli, and KSF Commander Gen. Kadri Kastriati, on Wednesday visited NATO Headquarters and met with senior officials of this institution. Hoxhaj, said that NATO supports the transformation of KSF in Kosovo Armed Forces (KAF). "It should be emphasized that it is a genuine support for the transformation of KSF in the Armed Forces,” wrote Hoxhaj on his Facebook profile.

Kosovo’s Interior Minister, Skender Hyseni, during an official visit to Italy, asked the country’s authorities to support Kosovo’s efforts in becoming a member of Interpol and Europol. Hyseni and his Italian counterpart, Angelino Alfano, discussed global terrorism and violent extremism and agreed to cooperate in fighting these negative phenomena which are not nationally confined. Hyseni also said in the meeting that Kosovo should not remain the only isolated country in the Balkans and that the visa liberalization would be of benefit not only to the people of Kosovo but the EU as well.

Municipal Assembly of Gjakova/Djakovica approved the proposal to award the Serbian human rights activist, Natasa Kandic, honorary citizenship.

The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, told BIRN that Palestine would not recognise Kosovo as an independent state. “We have good relations [with Kosovo] but we don’t interfere in conflicts between countries. We distance ourselves and we stay away from all the conflicts, because we don’t want to be here or there,” he said. The President said he was happy to offer Kosovo his “moral support” but no more. “They are friends, they are our people. But, because we have our problems, we hope that they will find a solution for themselves, without our interference,” Abbas said.

Foreign ministers of thirteen countries of south east Europe are taking part in the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) conference in Tirana, along with European Union representatives. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama addressed the participants saying countries in the region should speak with one voice in the EU and that the EU would be more fragile without the inclusion of the region. Rama also said that a joint resolution against terrorism is expected to be adopted at the end of the two-day meeting.

Kosovo’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency signed today in Pristina a Memorandum of Understanding in the fight against organised crime. Minister of Internal Affairs Skender Hyseni said Kosovo is strongly committed to fighting all types of crime, in particular the trans-national crime and corruption. At the same time, Stephen Bennett from the UK’s National Crime Agency said the signing of the MoU will lead to better cooperation between the countries in fighting organised crime.