Eurasia Press & News
The Republic of Kosovo and Southeast Europe, as an exposed region partially absorbed by current loyalists of Russian Intelligence Services, that are severely affecting regional security, have acquired a rapidly ascending geopolitical importance within the structures of the U. S. Intelligence Community and NATO Alliance.
On August 22 – 23, Ambassador William Joseph Burns, Director of Central Intelligence Agency visited Prishtina and conducted meetings with Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti and President Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu. The bilateral meeting with Mr. Kurti lasted over an hour and the major thrusts included regional stability, Kosovo’s inviolate territorial sovereignty and the steadfast bilateral cooperation between Prishtina and Washington on a myriad of regional security and intelligence issues.
Burns’ official visit comes exactly thirteen months after the violent attacks against Kosovo’s Police Force (September 24, 2023) by highly trained, ruthless Serbian military units near the Banjska Monastery in Kosovan sovereign territory. These attacks were unconscionable and deeply damaged the trust needed among different ethnic communities within Kosovo.
In the aftermath of this terrorist event, the United States strongly condemned the Russian style terrorist attack orchestrated by Belgrade and encouraged the enforcement of rule of law according to the constitution and laws of Kosovo. Diplomatic tests are infinite for the youngest Republic of Europe; on August 13th ambassador Jeffrey Hovenier overly trumpeted his concerns – statements simultaneously emphasized by international media – pertaining to Belgrade’s obvious concoctions of turmoil in the Serb-majority north of the country, where ethnic Serbs protested against Kurti’s plan to reopen a controversial Ibër River Bridge and the closure of Serbian post office branches. Both decisions are legitimate knowing that Kosovo has been an independent republic since February 17, 2008; these resolute actions should have been implemented under the tenure of Kurti’s predecessors.
However the United States, for murky reasons, strongly believes that this is not the time to reopen Mitrovica’s bridge for vehicle circulation. Meanwhile the Kosovar government has rightfully advocated for reopening the bridge that will definitely better integrate the Serbian population and boost the regional economy, there is no viable reason for local Serbs to be concerned that the opening of the bridge would increase ethnic tensions and impact their safety.
CIA Director Burns comes to Kosovo after visiting two other nations in eastern Adriatic; he also met with Petrit Ajeti, Director of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency.
This visit represents an important historical moment in the bilateral relations between Kosovo and the United States, where the unwavering commitment of Kurti’s Government to bolster territorial security and intelligence institutions of Kosovo, headed by the KIA, while working hand in glove with the CIA and the Office of the DIRECTOR of NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE.
Kosovo’s people celebrate and take to heart such high profile visits in Prishtina, amid the growing threats from dictators and rogues around the world. While the U. S. has hardly been immune from complacent illusions about a peaceable “international community”, the Biden – Harris administration has recklessly expanded social and welfare spending while shrinking the military; Mr. Biden has proposed four years in a row of dropping defense budgets after inflation, marking a record of weakness.
Kosovo has reached high economic growth, lowered unemployment rate and has fervently encouraged university scientific research especially in STEM. In these last three years, Gross Domestic Product of Kosovo was increased by 33 percent and the state budget by 35 percent, in this regard 11.1 percent (or 1/9) of the annual budget is dedicated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Defence.
Director William Burns’ visit to Kosovo is equally important to that of Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, who visited the country on July 29, 1999 (twenty five years ago) to assess the conditions and state of security in the ground in the wake of the deployment of KFOR and the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
Just like in the Cold War, the conduct of U. S. Foreign Policy has been focused on establishing alliances in order to respond to threats. In Southeast Europe Kosovo remains as the top trustworthy ally of Washington, nonetheless the White House should increase its military spending and its commitment to NATO to prevent the expansion of Russian military power from generating a ‘Finlandization’ of Europe. America’s alliance with Albanian nation is at the heart of maintaining peace and if discovered that the oath of America is worthless, then the structure of European peace (Pax Europaea) would crumble and democratic societies would be headed towards the abyss of an awful destruction. Washington must invest all assets, devote all tools of statecraft in order to contain, and help liberate all sovereign territory of Ukraine from the Russian Army.
