Bribery is the only factor of recognition

Recently, Kosovo's Foreign Ministry has accused the Government of Serbia and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic's cabinet of buying Kosovo recognitions.

“We are deeply concerned that the Serbian government has installed corruption and bribery as diplomatic means to accept counterfeit documents that do not serve anything, but only for the escalation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia”, the Kosovo Foreign Ministry communiqué said. Including in the relationship, reportedly bribery of attracting recognitions, Serbia's foreign minister's adviser is mentioned, Vladimir Cizej, which is said to be known for his criminal past and links to organised crime networks outside Europe”.

The origin of Serbia's campaign to reduce Kosovo's international recognitions, according to international relations connoisseurs, also connects with the stagnation of dialogue for normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Professor Gzim Visoka, who is legalist in Dublin City University in Ireland, says Serbia from the moment it first is unable to form the Association of Serbian municipalities in Belgrade's version, and since it was convinced that even international pressure on Kosovo was no longer functioning, it began to open a diplomatic front against the state of Kosovo.

“In essence, Kosovo's recognition has to do with empowering Serbia's negotiating position and expanding diplomatic opportunities at the expense of Kosovo. So the more Kosovo will resist an agreement that would suit Serbia, the more Serbia will continue the aggressive campaign against recognising Kosovo and membership in international organisations. Therefore, Kosovo should not be ignored and denied the issue of recognition”, Visoka says.

“On the contrary, it should condition the removal of the tax in exchange for interruption and return of recognition, as well as the removal of all non-tariff barriers Serbia has imposed on Kosovo in the last decade”, he said.

Meanwhile, Kosovo's deputy foreign minister in resignations, Anton Berisha, considers that failing to reach an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia has not influenced the states appointed to question Kosovo's recognition. He says Serbia is influencing specific states by introducing not directly the goal of dialogue.

I think that the slide of negotiations on the subject that has slipped has created an uncertainty in the international arena, especially in some states that are out of European areas. Serbia has been active, in the sense it is talked about Kosovo's status and not normalising the reports”, Berisha said.

But, in addition to the effects of <x0ryshfet”, as the Government of Kosovo calls it, other weaknesses are highlighted within Kosovo diplomacy that have helped or influenced some countries to consider or even attract recognition of Kosovo as a state.

Professor Gzim Visoka told Radio Free Europe that the battle for diplomatic recognition is a field connecting various local and international factors. According to him, there are several factors that are enabling the growth of Kosovo's recognition.

The first “factor concerns putting aside the campaign for recognition by the past two Kosovo governments. Focus has been placed on several memberships in international organisations and the cultivation and expansion of bilateral relations with the countries that have recognised us has somewhat been put aside. Furthermore, the lack of co-ordination between institutions and the lack of unique positions for Kosovo's domestic and external interests has affected the decline in Kosovo's” international presence, Visoka said.

The second factor, according to him, has to do with the decline in interest and influential power of the countries, which in political terminology in Pristina, is also known as the friendly states of Kosovo.

Kosovo is no longer an international priority, and Kosovo's friends have lost influence in some regions of the world, from which recognitions are coming. The third factor, related to the latter, has to do with empowering Russian influence, and, as a consequence, Serbia, where they are using personal, economic and military diplomacy to push ahead with Kosovo's recognition”, Visoka said.

According to him, there is another factor that has to do with the situation in countries that have recognised Kosovo and as a result of changing governments and changing their international interests, these countries without hesitation have changed their stance on Kosovo.

Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister (in resignation), Anton Berisha, told Radio Free Europe that authorities in Serbia are exploiting the political situation in Kosovo and the lack of an active government to lobby against Kosovo recognitions.

“We are government in resignations even though there has not been any activity, although the minister himself has been staying long in Africa, we have not seen any results, and we expect the new elections and government to be active as soon as possible, and the foreign ministry must go to an offensive stage“, Berisha said.

Officials in the Minister of Foreign Affairs have not stated what the number of states Kosovo has so far recognised. But, on the web site, Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli finds out 116 States which are said to have recognised Kosovo.