Germany is closely monitoring the tensions between Serbia and Kosovo, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius assured on Monday, quoted by the German news agency DPA.
KFOR (Kosovo Force) – NATO peacekeeping forces in KosovoPhoto: AA/ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia
“We are carefully monitoring the situation and we will react if necessary”, said Boris Pistorius, who at the same time called for the de-escalation of tensions, reports the DPA agency, quoted by Agerpres.
The German defense minister did not rule out an increase in the contribution of German troops to NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, as Britain did, but specified that there are no plans for this at the moment.
Boris Pistorius also emphasized that Germany will “be able to act very quickly” if it becomes necessary.
“The personnel ceiling is 400 German soldiers for KFOR”
The president of the defense committee of the German parliament previously mentioned on Monday the idea of sending more German soldiers to the KFOR mission.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann stated for the German RND media group that, according to the mandate, “the personnel ceiling is 400 soldiers”.
Currently, only 85 soldiers from Germany serve in KFOR, “so, without the need to change the mandate, there is still a lot of room for improvement”, concluded the German official.
KFOR, present in Kosovo since the 1998-99 war, remains the main institution responsible for security, with 4,500 soldiers from 27 countries.
On Sunday, an Alliance spokesman announced that around 600 British soldiers would be deployed in Kosovo to strengthen NATO’s presence in the former Serbian province, where an armed attack took place on September 24.
Resurgence of violence in northern Kosovo
In the latest violence, which took place on September 24, a paramilitary commando of several dozen men killed a Kosovar Albanian policeman and wounded another at a roadblock near the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo, a region where Serbs they are the majority.
Three members of the commando, all Kosovar Serbs, were later killed and three others were arrested in an operation launched by Kosovo police special forces. Russia blamed Kosovo for the “bloodshed”.
The others ran away. The United States, Kosovo’s main international ally, warned on Friday of a “major military deployment by Serbia along the border with Kosovo”, calling on Serbia to “withdraw (its troops)”.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic then accused Washington of uttering “untruths”, without explicitly denying the presence of Serbian troops. He had stated that the number of Serbian troops was far below that of a similar deployment in May.
The deployment of Serbian troops to the Kosovo border is reminiscent of Russia’s behavior before it launched its invasion of Ukraine, Kosovo’s foreign minister said Monday.
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