Eurasia Press & News
Four years after official Pristina and Podgorica established diplomatic relations, Kosovo has finally appointed a diplomatic representative in Montenegro.
Jafer Ahmeti will take up his office as Kosovo’s charge d’affaires in Montenegro on Thursday.
Speaking on Wednesday, he said opening diplomatic missions in Podgorica and Pristina would further intensify the cordial relations between the two small Balkan countries.
“We are grateful that Montenegro, during the war in the late Nineties, opened its borders and provided shelter for tens of thousands of refugees from Kosovo, which its people can never forget,” Ahmeti said.
Montenegro recognized Kosovo’s independence in 2008, much to the anger of Serbia, and of the Serbian community in Montenegro.
Serbia still maintains that Kosovo is a province of Serbia, although the two countries recently agreed to “normalise” relations in the interests of EU integration.
Kosovo and Montenegro established diplomatic relations in 2010 but Montenegro still has only a charge d’affaires in Pristina, not an ambassador.
Recognition of the existence of a Montenegrin community in Kosovo has been one of the conditions set by the Montenegrin government before it will send an ambassador to Pristina.
Kosovo’s small Montenegrin community is seeking constitutional recognition and a share of the allocated seats for minorities in the Kosovo parliament.
