Kosovo's Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said on Friday that redrawing existing borders between the self-proclaimed republic and Serbia may bring about a new conflict in the Balkans and lead to a second NATO intervention.
BELGRADE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st August, 2018) Kosovo's Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said on Friday that redrawing existing borders between the self-proclaimed republic and Serbia may bring about a new conflict in the Balkans and lead to a second NATO intervention.
In early August, Serbia proposed partition of Kosovo along ethnic lines as a means of avoiding further conflicts. According to Belgrade's plan, Serbia would give up its southern areas, mostly inhabited by Albanians, for Kosovo's territories where Serbian population prevails. On Thursday, Haradinaj announced that Pristina had decided not to put the territories exchange issue on the agenda of the EU-mediated meeting between Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels on September 7.
"Continuation of the public debate on redrawing borders and swapping territories is a call for a new tragedy in the Balkans. It will destabilize and bring about risks for the long-term political investment in peace in Kosovo and the region," Haradinaj said, as cited by the RTK broadcaster.
The official added that Pristina would work on preventing such "destructive ideas" which could eventually develop into a new NATO intervention.
Earlier in the day, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini refused to comment on the idea of exchanging territories between Serbia and Kosovo, but noted that the European Union would support any mutually agreed solution based on international law.
In 2008, Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia, nine years after NATO engaged in a war against Serbia and Montenegro over the alleged mistreatment of Albanians.
The Kosovo authorities were to present a draft statute for the Association of Serb Municipalities by August 4. The statute is supposed to include 10 municipalities with a total area of over 15 percent of Kosovo's territory and a population of over 100,000 people, with ethnic Serbs prevailing. The establishment of the association was initiated by the European Union and Pristina in 2013 as part of the settlement, but still was not achieved.
