Eurasia

The United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, will be keeping 507 personnel in the country, the world body’s spokesman in Kosovo announced on Monday. “UNMIK has been undergoing a reconfiguration process since last year, and the new budget, which is being debated by the General Assembly, calls for the presence …

NATO is expected to cut its troop numbers in Kosovo by one third because of the improved security situation, US sources have said. “NATO is working towards the next phase of its operations to a deterrence presence,” the US official told journalists in Brussels. NATO’s Kosovo Force, or KFOR, entered …

Serbia’s Deputy Minister for Kosovo, Bojan Andjelkovic, announced yesterday that 450 Kosovo Serb families have expressed their desire to return to their homes in Kosovo. “By Friday, there were 450 families registered [to return to their homes in Kosovo]. Since the campaign will continue until the end of June, I …

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and Romanian Foreign Minister Cristian Diaconescu told Serbian officials in Belgrade yesterday that they supported Serbia’s European integration and visa liberalisation for Serbian citizens traveling to the EU. The Italian and Romanian foreign ministers issued a joint statement recommending that the interim agreement between Serbia …

UNMIK is making preparations for at least two more years in Kosovo, despite calls from the Kosovo Government to end its presence in the country. The timeframe emerged in a tender from the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, which is ordering in two years of fuel, with the option to …

France will help Kosovo on its path to European Union membership, according to statements issued by President Sarkozy’s entourage. Unnamed sources at the Elysée Palace, the French president’s Parisian residence, revealed that Nicolas Sarkozy had told Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, in Paris on an official visit, that the country’s …

Albania is heading a series of NATO led naval exercises in the Adriatic Sea, a first for the newly promoted member of the alliance. The war games which include thousands of marines and officers from Albania, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Italy and Montenegro, aim to strengthen cooperation between naval forces in …

Ukraine has settled its bill for Russian gas supplies in May ahead of a deadline, state energy company Naftogaz said on Friday, after Russia cast doubts on its ability to pay. Ukraine needed to pay $657 million by Sunday for 2.4 billion cubic metres of gas, including $500 million for …

Russia has made a $500 million loan to Belarus contingent on its recognition of two separatist Georgian regions as independent states, President Alexander Lukashenko was quoted as saying on Friday. But Lukashenko, interviewed by Russian media, said Belarus’s support was not for sale. Relations between the two former Soviet republics …

The U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague said on Friday it would restart the trial of two former Serbian intelligence chiefs next Tuesday after suspending the trial last year due to the ill health of one the suspects. Jovica Stanisic, head of the secret service of late Yugoslav President …