Kosovo's poor diplomacy received only recognition this year

The year 2018 has been challenging for Kosovo's foreign policy. Kosovo diplomacy in the international arena is being challenged by Serbia and the non-recognition of five member states. The state of Kosovo has stalled in terms of new recognitions, while advancing in terms of establishing diplomatic relations.

So told the Pristina Institute for Political Studies table of crérast, and the report “Kosovo Foreign Policy Viter”.

The co-ordinator at the Pristina Institute for Political Studies (PIPS), Butrit Berisha, said that on the basis of this report, it turns out Kosovo has not progressed to new recognitions, as it is recognised only by Barbados.

Kosovo diplomacy in 2018, however, has achieved success only in terms of establishing diplomatic relations.

This report has also highlighted the deterioration of Kosovo's state relations with friendly countries like America, due to public differences, both on the issue of demarcation, the abolition of the Special Court, while with Germany and the United Kingdom, there have been conflicting positions on the idea of overhauling borders.

“Bilateral recognitions or bilateral recognitions, especially in the early years following the declaration of independence, the main focus of foreign policy and why in recent years this focus has deviated, however, is that trend in recent years is declining to two-way recognitions, most recognitions have arrived in 2008-2014, after 2014. Kosovo has been struggling to manage to secure two three recognitions per year. There's no exception either in 2018, where there's only one recognition from Barbados in February 2018, but contrary to this other problem that was presented in 2018 was the withdrawal of recognitions or the revote of recognitions... 3 There have been good results in establishing diplomatic relations this year, diplomatic relations with Oman, Bangladesh”, he said.

According to this report, Kosovo's integration into the European Union in 2018 has been minimal because it has failed to implement SAA chapter 2, while in terms of reports of the five countries that have not recognised our country, Kosovo has exchanged meetings with Greece when it is expected to open an office, while it only cools relations away.

Regarding Kosovo's membership in international organisations, according to Kosovo foreign policy writer”, it is said the country has failed to apply to the Council of Europe and is now expected to apply for membership in Interpol.

Regional Affairs Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fitim Glareva said attracting recognitions to Kosovo more has been a propaganda of Serbia, as the MPJ has not accepted any official letter from these states that have attracted recognitions.

According to him, Kosovo's state this year has been more intense than the past years.

This thing about recognition has been a little more propaganda of Serbia than actually happened, we as the foreign minister have never received notice. Leave whatever it was from the states that referred to getting recognitions. It has been the continuation of what Serbia has done since independence, but even earlier, which has two tracks in relation to Kosovo -- one that is to undermine citizenship, subjective to what we have achieved so far, and the rest is that other line of division of Kosovo in some form from EU integration”, he said.

As for establishing exchanges in the region, he said the heads of state have also made significant regional exchanges.

While, Florian Qehaja from the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies said that the three main challenges of Kosovo's foreign policy are the state of Serbia, the lack of diplomatic capacities and customerism, as well as international fatigue in Kosovo.

According to the Kosovo partner states, they are not inclined to push Kosovo towards international mechanisms until we have reached any agreement with Serbia.

“There is an international fatigue in Kosovo. . There is no tendency to push Kosovo especially into international mechanisms as long as we have the problem with Serbia, because these partner states are at odds with the big state with Russia and China, and there's simply a change of priorities and it's probably 20 years since Kosovo is being mentioned in international multi-lateral platforms, then there's a reluctance to postpone it, and there's a conflict that means constant among our partner states, but in one country that supports Serbia “, Qheja said.

Qehaja said Kosovo's next front for 2019 is application for U n NESCO and the Council of Europe.

From the Kosovo Institute for European Policy, Demush Shasha said no European Union official has given deadlines on when visa liberalisation will occur, this, according to Shasha, is part of Kosovo's political discurs and is the responsibility of this leadership that has increased expectations that we are close to free movement.

According to him, Kosovo's failure to integrate is happening because of political immatureness, and as the second challenge is the non-recognition of Kosovo by the five Kosovo member states.

The political maturity, the immature scene and the political leadership, I'm not saying this without responsibility, because it's the highest level of emancipation... if these things are only analysed in recent years, you see that political disinclination has failed behind consensus on certain things that are very rational and it's good that citizens, but it's just lacking a political touch that these reforms, these things are pushed forward, whatever the demarcation, whatever the marginalized system of justice, are so clear about the political failures of the political... Non-recognition by the five countries is less important in the sense that Kosovo has not done homework to enable today to be called to obstacles to the five non-connouncious countries”, Shasha said.

The publication of Kosovo foreign policy “Ver” was supported by the Democratic Society Promotive Project (DSP), funded by the Swiss Development and Co-operation Agency(SDC) and Denmark Foreign Affairs Ministry( DANIDA), and managed by the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF).

Otherwise, Kosovo's citizenship for ten years has recognised 115 sovereign countries, established diplomatic relations with 80 states, while currently has over 40 open diplomatic missions and is a member of over 50 multilateral international organisations.