Kosovo wishes to become a member of NATO and the European Union, the self-proclaimed republic’s prime minister Albin Kurti said on Wednesday, while visiting Washington. Serbia’s breakaway province had declared independence with US support in 2008, but has not been recognized by Belgrade, the UN, or even all the EU member states.
Kurti made the announcement during an event hosted by the Atlantic Council on Wednesday afternoon. Earlier in the day, he met with officials of the Biden administration – including national security adviser Jake Sullivan and USAID chief Samantha Power – and several members of Congress.
One of them, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) expressed “unequivocal support” for Kosovo’s aspirations to join “international and regional organizations, especially NATO,” Kurti said on Twitter.
Kosovo is a province of Serbia temporarily occupied by NATO after the alliance’s 78-day air war in 1999. Its provisional government declared independence in 2008 and has been recognized by the US and many of its allies, but not Russia, China, Serbia itself. More to the point, five EU members – Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain – have not recognize its independence, making Kurti’s EU bid a tall order.