Taoiseach begins two-day visit to west Balkans

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has begun a two-day visit to the Balkans where he is set to meet senior politicians in Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia to discuss matters including their aspirations to become members of the European Union.

Mr Varadkar is scheduled to meet Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, on Thursday, as well as the president Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu. He is then due to visit Irish peacekeeping troops posted in Pristina, the country’s capital.

Ireland has 13 Defence Forces personnel posted to a peacekeeping force in Kosovo. The mission, known as KFOR, has remained in place since the end of the 1998-99 war, where a Nato bombing campaign caused Serbian forces to withdraw from Kosovo, its former province.

It is expected that Mr Varadkar and Mr Kurti will discuss the recent escalation of tensions between Kosovo and Serbia. Issues have arisen over the past year in northern Kosovo, where there is a large concentration of ethnic Serbs near the border with Serbia.

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A police officer and three gunmen were killed when fighting broke out between Kosovar police and an armed group of ethnic Serbs at a monastery last September. A number of peacekeeping troops were also injured last May during clashes between ethnic Serb protesters and Kosovar police.

Ethnic Albanians make up a majority of Kosovo’s 1.8 million people. However, the 50,000 Serbs in the north remain largely aligned to Belgrade, despite Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.

Ahead of his meeting with Mr Kurti, Mr Varadkar said he intended to “particularly encourage” the Kosovar leader to focus on efforts to normalise relations with Serbia, which he said was “essential” to both having a “path to EU membership”.

Mr Varadkar is to meet the president of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, and prime minister Milojko Spajić later on Thursday. He is to travel to Skopje in North Macedonia on Friday to meet president Stevo Pendarovski and prime minister Dimitar Kovačevski.

The Taoiseach said he believed the future of the countries “lies within the EU”.

“I know that all three countries are committed to implementing the necessary reforms. I look forward to discussing how we in Ireland, and our partners across Europe, can help these three countries to achieve full EU membership,” he said in a statement.

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