The US on Friday suspended talks with Kosovo, saying the actions by its caretaker government were to blame for rising tensions and instability in the small Balkan country and the region.
Seven months after parliamentary elections in February, Kosovo still does not have a functioning parliament because the governing left-wing Self-Determination Movement, or Vetevendosje — led by Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti — refuses to accept that the new parliament’s deputy speaker be a member of the Serb ethnic minority, from the Srpska Lista, or Serb List, party.
Kurti’s side has said it rejects the Serb party and its candidates because of its close ties to Belgrade, neighboring Serbia’s capital, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, saying they have created illegal parallel governing structures in Kosovo’s north, where most of the ethnic Serbs live.
Photo: AFP
The US embassy in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, said in a statement on Friday that Washington decided on an indefinite suspension of “its planned strategic dialogue” with Kosovo because of concerns over the caretaker government’s actions.
These actions, the embassy said, have constrained the “ability of the United States to work productively with Kosovo on joint priorities.”
Kosovo’s Constitution calls for the two deputy speakers to be from the country’s ethnic minorities, including one from the Serb minority. The Srpska Lista party, which won nine out of 10 seats belonging to the minority, has offered a candidate for the deputy speaker, but Kurti’s party has not accepted the proposal.
Landlocked Kosovo’s population of 1.6 million has at least 2.3 percent Serbs, although many Serbs declined to take part in the last census, and their number is believed to be higher.
Without a new parliament in place, lawmakers cannot vote in a new government, which is needed not only to run the economy and other services, but also to proceed with the 14-year-long normalization talks with Serbia that have stalled over the past months.
Kosovar government spokesman Perparim Kryeziu defended the administration’s stance on Facebook, saying that Kosovo’s problem is with Belgrade’s proxies in Kosovo, or as he said, Serbia’s structures in Kosovo, not with Kosovo’s Serbs.
“We never have equalized Serb citizens in Kosovo with Serbia’s illegal and parallel structures in Kosovo,” he said.
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said she regrets the US decision and would continue to work closely with Washington — an effort to show her separate stance from Kurti’s government.
“Our partnership with the United States is not only a guarantee for the present, but also the safest compass toward the future,” she said.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS