Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has met with several prominent figures and long-standing supporters of Kosovo in Paris, a day before the official opening of the Paris Peace Forum.
“In Paris with friends of the Republic of Kosovo,” Kurti wrote in a Facebook post, expressing gratitude to individuals who have maintained ties with Kosovo and contributed to the country in various ways.
Among those he met were Alain Richard, former French Defence Minister and supporter of NATO’s 1999 intervention to stop war crimes and ethnic cleansing against Kosovo Albanians by Serbia’s state apparatus.
Kurti also met Gilles Pernet, a military officer and former senior official at the French Ministry of Defence, who co-authored the book Kosovo: récits sur la construction d’un État with Sébastien Gricourt, whom Kurti described as a valued friend and strong supporter of Kosovo.
The meetings also included Véronique Nahoum-Grappe, an anthropologist and researcher whose work focuses on sexual violence during wars and conflicts. She has been engaged with Kosovo since the 1990s and is the author of Kosovo: un drame annoncé. She is the daughter of renowned philosopher and sociologist Edgar Morin.
Kurti further highlighted his meeting with Frédérique Duversin, director of the Kosovo Cultural Centre in Paris, who has supported Kosovo since the final decade of the 20th century and contributed to promoting the country’s culture, as well as supporting its students and artists.
Another participant was Florence Hartmann, a journalist and former Le Monde correspondent specialising in international justice and the Western Balkans. She previously served as adviser and spokesperson to the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague and is the author of several books, including Milosevic, la diagonale du fou.
According to Kurti, discussions focused on Kosovo’s democratic progress and sustainable economic development, investments in security and defence, and the September 16 verdict, which he described as unjust, as well as efforts to challenge it through the appeals process.
The talks also addressed the government’s plans for its new mandate and France’s important role in supporting Kosovo’s path towards Euro-Atlantic integration.
