The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, told TV Klan that the government was working on new recognitions and that he had recently sent a letter to one country on this issue, not wanting to reveal which one, because, as he says, “Serbia has a network of embassies and a foreign service that is more powerful than Kosovo”.
Speaking about the recognition of Kosovo by the five EU countries that have not done so, Kurti said that Kosovo’s allies helped a lot in this regard.
He added that so far he has not written to those countries with a request to recognize the independence of Kosovo.
“Mediators and allied countries help us a lot, and I believe that it is better to go this indirect way in terms of progressing towards the recognition of the ‘five’. It is simply not in our hands, and I do not believe that it would help to write to them immediately after this agreement. We ask for this at every meeting we organize. I have not personally written to them, but these are sensitive lobbying issues. If I tell you who I wrote to last week, I will do harm, because Serbia will also immediately write to those countries. Serbia has a much stronger network of embassies and foreign services from us,” Kurti said.
He said that new recognitions did not depend entirely on Kosovo.
Kurti also pointed out that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, if he asks to come to Kosovo, will not get a permit.
As he said, “A man like Vucic, who questions the massacre in Racak and considers it a fabrication, is an undesirable person in Kosovo”.
“I have not received any request for such a visit and of course, given the circumstances we are in, it would not be desirable in Kosovo. If this is a person who says that the massacre in Racak is a fabrication and has never changed his position, I don’t think he should come to Kosovo. Of course, I won’t give permission. But it’s better if he asks once. Now that we’ve said that I don’t give him permission, he won’t even ask for it. It would be better if he made the request, but what should we do now, I said,” Kurti stated.
He also said that an agreement had been reached with Serbia and that no one could say that there was no agreement.
“There is an agreement. The agreement was concluded in Brussels and Ohrid. It is legally binding. This agreement was also adopted by the EU, not only by mediators Borrell and Lajcak, who concluded that it was an agreement, but, unfortunately, there is no signature due to the other party. The lack of signature becomes a verdict for Serbia, but it does not affect the existence of the agreement,” Kurti said.
He repeated that he did not support the “Open Balkans” initiative.
“I have not changed my position. ‘Open Balkans’, as far as I know, does not even have a web page. Therefore, it is an initiative that has neither a platform, a basic contract, a strategy, nor an action plan. This is not according to the rules of the European Union. There is no funding from the European Union and I cannot support such an initiative,” Kurti said.
