Stolteneberg visits Kosovo and the region

2023-11-17 15:36:39, Kosova & Bota CNA

Stolteneberg visits Kosovo and the region

Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg

The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, will visit Kosovo on Monday, November 20, as part of a visit to several Balkan countries.

He is expected to meet with the state president, Vjosa Osmani, on Monday afternoon.

According to NATO's announcement, Stoltenberg will start his visit to the Balkans first in Bosnia-Herzegovina, during the morning of November 20.

The next day he will be in Serbia and North Macedonia.

In the latter, he will stay on November 22.

From the countries of the Western Balkans, Albania, North Macedonia and Montenegro are part of the alliance.

State officials of Kosovo have expressed several times the intention to become part of the European Union and NATO.

Last year, the prime minister of Kosovo mentioned that he intends for the country to join the NATO program, Partnership for Peace.

The United States has supported this decision of Kosovo, although they have noted that such membership requires the approval of all the countries of the alliance.

Out of 31 NATO member countries, 27 of them have recognized Kosovo as an independent state, while four (Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain) have not yet.

The Partnership for Peace is a NATO program aimed at building trust between NATO member states and other states in Europe.

Currently, NATO is present in Kosovo through its mission, KFOR.

Until November 2023, 4,687 troops from 27 countries of the world have been part of this mission./ REL