Former American Colonel Rogers: Kosovo is making progress towards NATO, but some obstacles remain

During a speech, Rogers said he had early ties with Kosovo, as he participated in combat missions during the 1999 war and visited the country several times. He stressed that Kosovo has made visible progress in its development and co-operation with NATO.

This is a complicated issue, but at the same time it's a very possible result, I have to say. Of course, there are many obstacles and things to overcome. In particular, in today's speech I will talk about my relationship with NATO. I've been working at NATO headquarters for 10 years, so I'm very familiar with Kosovo as a country, and I flew on combat missions in 1999 during wartime, and visited Kosovo several times”, Rogers said.

He cited obstacles Kosovo must pass to become NATO member states, which are largely diplomatic.

You have a beautiful place and it's been great to see how the country developed. People are very positive towards Kosovo. She's a great partner. He's not an ally yet, but he's a very good partner. Kosovo contributes to many missions and is very willing to contribute to other missions as well. Of course, there are four countries within NATO that do not recognise Kosovo. I believe you're very familiar with this: Spain, Slovakia, Romania and Greece. These are some of the obstacles Kosovo must overcome immediately. And this is largely an issue of diplomatic relations between these countries. In addition, I can say that Kosovo is doing a very good job in terms of increasing its importance within NATO, within the European Union and within the European coalition”, Rogers said.

Meanwhile, what Kosovo needs to have is “Membership Action Plan to become part of the international military alliance, but Rogers stresses that even though there is still no positive presence with the countries that recognise it.

There's no clear map right now. Because what we call <x0harte” is actually the Membership Action Plan. When a country takes this plan, it is on a path to membership. This is not necessarily a fast track, because for some countries it has taken too long. For example, if we take northern Macedonia, it took more than 15 years to finally be admitted to NATO, and this was ultimately related to the name issue with Greece. Kosovo does not have a Mmbersip Action Plan, but what it has is a very positive presence within the alliance with countries that recognise it. Even non-recognition countries will take time to explain at least to Kosovars what's going on. I have seen delegations from Kosovo that have come to NATO and have been received very positively. But the challenge is that you have to have a state that sponsors Kosovo to enter these meetings. It is usually the United States; sometimes it was the United Kingdom and other countries. But I would say that there is no specific plan at the moment, even though this could happen in the future”, Rogers said.

As technically, Rogers decided that it depends on the Action Plan if one day Kosovo is offered.

On the technical side, this will depend heavily on Membership Action Plan, if one day it is offered to Kosovo. Then there are some things Kosovo must do. There will be delegations going to NATO, ministers who will report before the alliance on progress: rule of law, democratic institutions, etc. Then things can start moving forward. I'll tell you something: I'm very impressed. I spent little time in the Ministry of Defence today and must say I have been very close to Kosovo over the years. The Kosovo Security Force on several occasions is many years before several other countries that are already NATO members. This relates to the size of the army, but what I see from KSF's co-operation with the Ioga National Guard, and to the United States through the PR programs, which allow members to attend universities and military academy, shows that Kosovo has done a great job. And I want to stress again: their volunteering to help with NATO and EU missions is excellent, because that's how you become an operational partner, which sometimes can lead to a clearer path to membership” added Rogers.

Also for the Kosovo Security Force, it said it is viewed more positively than some other countries that are candidates for NATO membership.

There are many countries that bilateral and multilaterally assist the KSF during this process. But from NATO's perspective, there is an institution called NALT, NATO Advisory Lieison Team, which helps determine what is expected of the KSF for NATO standards. Then questions arise such as: Is the army too large or too small, whether it is capable or not? But I can say that currently, according to the NALT and other institutions I work with, as well as the bilateral relations I know, the KSF is viewed very positively, even more positively than some other countries that are candidates to become part of NATO”, Rogers added.