UK urges calm over clashes in Kosovo

LONDON

Dialogue is the only sustainable way to establish peace in Kosovo, the British minister of state for Europe said Saturday, calling for de-escalation of the current tension along the border with Serbia.

Voicing approval for UK forces newly bolstering KFOR peacekeepers in Kosovo, Leo Docherty said that this shows Britain's commitment to NATO and stability in the Western Balkans.

"We urge calm and de-escalation from all sides. The only sustainable path to peace in Kosovo is through dialogue," he wrote on X.

Last Sunday, a clash broke out in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo – a region with a large ethnic Serb population – near the Serbian border, where a gunfight left one police officer dead and another injured.

The area has been the scene of unrest since April, when local ethnic Serbs boycotted elections in northern Kosovo, followed by protests against the election of ethnic Albanian mayors.

The last week has seen a “large Serbian military deployment along the border with Kosovo" including advanced artillery, tanks, and mechanized infantry unit, according to the US National Security Council, whose spokesman call the deployment “a very destabilizing development.”

Kosovo on Saturday called on Serbia to pull back its troops, and Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general, wrote on X Friday after a North Atlantic Council meeting: “NATO Allies met today & expressed deep concern about tensions in northern Kosovo. NATO’s KFOR mission will always take the necessary actions to maintain a safe & secure environment & freedom of movement for all.”

Albanians are by far the largest ethnic group in Kosovo, followed by Serbs, with about half living in the country's north.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and gained recognition from many countries, including Türkiye. But Belgrade has never recognized Kosovo and claims that its territory is still part of Serbia.

*Talha Ozturk contributed to this report in Belgrade