No reaction from NATO about announcements of "Kosovo army"

Source: Tanjug

PRIŠTINA -- NATO has not officially commented on announcements made in Priština that the "Kosovo armed forces" would be formed, writes Koha Ditore.

This Albanian-language daily published in Priština, however, quoted NATO diplomats as saying that "announcements that some kind of army of Kosovo would be formed was election rhetoric meant to be used for internal marketing."
They also "hoped that Kosovo's officials would stick to their promise that they will not make any steps related to security forces without consulting with the alliance."

At the same time, several countries are considering how to improve the Kosovo Security Force (KSF), and are warning that the rhetoric could set back these efforts, the newspaper writes.

The unnamed diplomats "admitted that when the security forces of Kosovo are discussed, several counties that have not recognized Kosovo, Spain in particular, are making big obstacles to plans to engage NATO in increased cooperation with the KSF."

"Currently several countries have an idea to gradually invite the KSF to international meetings dedicated to security topics, but are unsure how the NATO Council would react," the article added.

"All improvements and successes that we have achieved so far have only been possible because we convinced member-states that this was work within NATO's mandate, and not for the sake of some other activity to form some kind of army in the territory of Kosovo," a diplomat from a NATO member-state was quoted as saying, and adding:

"In this manner we succeeded in confirming that the FSK had raised all operative capacities. We are aware that now this process needs to be improved, but we must do that very carefully."

The same source also "warned that there were fears that Spain or some other country could abuse the pre-election rhetoric in Kosovo in order to prevent NATO's engagement in helping the KSF."