Kurti requests increased NATO presence in Kosovo

(Patria) - Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti called on NATO to increase the number of peacekeepers in Kosovo, following recent tensions with Serbia.

"A significant increase in NATO soldiers and military equipment in our country would improve security and peace in Kosovo and throughout the Western Balkan region," Kurti told the German newspaper Die Welt.

The NATO mission in Kosovo (KFOR) currently comprises over 3,700 soldiers from 27 countries worldwide.

NATO forces in Kosovo were deployed after the end of the 1999 war with the aim of guaranteeing security, reports Radio Free Europe.

Recently, new tensions arose between Kosovo and Serbia. Local Serbs in northern Kosovo blocked the area for 20 consecutive days.

The barricades were erected in protest against the arrest of a former Serbian police officer who, according to Pristina, is suspected of organizing an attack on the offices of Kosovo's Central Election Commission in the north of the country.

However, the Serbs decided to remove the barricades after Dejan Pantić's pre-trial detention measure was changed to house arrest.

Representatives of Serbs in Kosovo also stated at a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić on December 28 that they had received assurances that the Serbs' demands for the removal of barricades would be met.

During the erection of the barricades, the Kosovo government stated several times that it had given KFOR time to remove the barricades, or it would do so itself.