Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti calls for increased presence of NATO peacekeeping forces in his country, writes Bloomberg.

Following recent tensions between Kosovo and neighboring Serbia, this Western Balkan country wants to increase the number of NATO troops on the ground from its current deployment of nearly 3,800 troops. Kosovo Forces (KFOR) has been in Kosovo since 1999.

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“Increasing the number of soldiers sent by NATO to the KFOR peacekeeping force would support our defense efforts,” Kurti said, referring to the accumulation of Serbian forces and artillery on the border, as well as increased rhetoric from Russia and Serbia. additional NATO troops in Kosovo.

Kosovo has a predominantly ethnic Albanian population of 1.8 million but is home to over 100,000 Serbs. Recall that the latest tensions erupted in August after the authorities in Kosovo tried to force the Serbian minority to switch to car numbers and personal documents issued by the Kosovo government, not the Serbian.

The history of the confrontation between Kosovo and Serbia.

Three decades after the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia, the ethnic strife that sparked the conflict continues. Kosovo declared its independence from the former Yugoslav Republic of Serbia in 2008, but Serbia refuses to recognize it. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has given a new dimension to the confrontation. And now the Serbian army has been put on high alert after weeks of rising tensions between the Kosovo authorities and the local Serb minority..

Protests erupted in Kosovo in 1981 following the death of Yugoslavia's continued ruling communist dictator, Josip Broz Tito.. The initial demand by ethnic Albanians to turn Kosovo from a province in Serbia into a federal republic in Yugoslavia led to an exacerbation of radical nationalist sentiment among Serbs and helped Slobodan Milosevic come to power in Serbia in 1987, he promised to “stop”.

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However, his repression led to an escalation in the demands of the Kosovo majority for full independence.. In 1998, a war broke out over this territory, in which more than 10,000 people died..

Fighting ceased in 1999 when NATO bombing forced Serbian troops to leave Kosovo, and an estimated 200,000 Serb civilians also fled. Serbia has vowed never to agree to the separation of the territory, which it considers its historical center, this position is supported by Russia, China and five members of the European Union.