PRISTINA, May 22 (Reuters) – Kosovo must execute a Western-brokered peace deal with Serbia if it is to join the NATO military alliance, according to two US senators visiting Pristina on Monday.
US Democratic senators Chris Murphy, a member of the international affairs committee, and Gary Peters, a member of the armed services committee, encouraged the two nations to follow through on the March agreement agreed with European Union mediation. They are members of a congressional delegation traveling to the Balkans.
“The path (to NATO and the European Union) for Kosovo is through an agreement with Serbia.” “That’s a hard fact,” Murphy told reporters at the US embassy in Pristina.
Four NATO nations, Romania, Spain, Greece, and Slovakia, have not recognized Kosovo as a state since it proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008.
Murphy stated that if tensions with Serbia were resolved, the four may be persuaded to allow Kosovo into NATO. “It is dependent on this agreement being done and implemented,” he explained.
Despite a March agreement to normalize ties, there has been no movement on the ground, particularly in northern Kosovo, where around 50,000 Serbs continue to reject Kosovo’s sovereignty.
Washington is Kosovo’s most important political and financial ally. Approximately 4,000 NATO troops are presently stationed in Kosovo, including 600 from the United States helping to keep the fragile peace.
Serbia and its longtime ally Russia refuse to recognize Kosovo’s independence, and Moscow has blocked the country’s request to join the United Nations. Kosovo is still considered part of Serbian land. /Reuters
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