NATO Calls On Kosovo, Serbia To Avoid Escalation

11/9/2022 7:35:40 AM

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) BRUSSELS, Nov 7 (KUNA) -- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Monday Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti to avoid escalation and help defuse the tense situation in northern Kosovo.
'I urged both to refrain from any unilateral action that can trigger escalation. Dialogue is the only way forward,' said the NATO chief on his twitter message this evening.
He added that the NATO peacekeeping forces in Kosovo (KFOR) will remain vigilant.
Tensions rose last Saturday after representatives of Serb minority in north of Kosovo resigned from the local municipalities, from the judiciary, the police as well as from the Government and Assembly of Kosovo in protest over a row on vehicle number plates.
Pristina had announced that from November, Kosovan Serbs with licence plates issued by Serbia must replace them with plates from the Republic of Kosovo.
Belgrade does not recognise Kosovo's independence declared in 2008 and the 40,000 Serb minority in northern Kosovo refuses to acknowledge Pristina's authority and have remained loyal to the Serbian government in Belgrade.
NATO has been leading a peace-support operation in Kosovo - the Kosovo Force (KFOR) - since June 1999.
KFOR was established when NATO's 78-day air campaign against the late Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian regime in Belgrade, aimed at putting an end to violence in Kosovo, was over. As of today, approximately 3,600 troops serve in KFOR.
Meanwhile, News agency Kosova press today reported that after the resignation of the Serbian policemen, the general security situation in the northern borders of the country, Jarinje and Bernjak, is calm and without any incidents.
Kosova Press quoted police officials at the border saying that everything is going according to plan and without problems, while after the resignation of the Serbian policemen from these border points, the number of their Albanian colleagues has increased. (end)
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