NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will visit Kosovo and Serbia next week following escalating tensions between the Balkan nations.
The military alliance announced that Stoltenberg will visit Kosovo on Monday for talks with its prime minister and president before visiting peacekeepers from the Western military alliance deployed there. The next day, he will be in Belgrade for a meeting with the Serbian president. The tensions between Kosovo and Serbia have persisted since a war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move Belgrade has never recognised. Tensions have flared in Kosovo’s north for months, with protests erupted in April after Pristina-allied mayors were installed after boycotted local elections in four Serb northern municipalities. NATO deployed more personnel to Kosovo in response. Western powers, including the United States and the European Union, have been pressuring Kosovo and Serbia to improve ties.