The U.S. Embassy was disappointed by the new border commission’s report to the Assembly Committee on European Integration yesterday. Its assertions are unsubstantiated, misleading, and wrong.
The existing agreement reflects an accurate process of determining the border, confirmed by Kosovo’s state commission and numerous internationally recognized experts. In 2015, the State Department confirmed that the original agreement accurately reflected the boundary that has existed between Kosovo and Montenegro since 1974. No facts have emerged since to call that decision into question. Questioning the agreement and dragging out the process of ratification threatens Kosovo’s relationships with its neighbors and the EU, and leaves Kosovo and its citizens isolated.
It is time for Kosovo’s institutions to work to promote the interests of Kosovo’s citizens in this matter. We urge Kosovo’s politicians to look beyond their personal partisan interests and party politics and focus on the needs of their citizens by ratifying the existing agreement as soon as possible.
