want to see Kosovo’s future advance in NATO. Kosovo is in good standing with NATO in terms of values and institutions. So, it’s more about resolving these issues,” said Hovenier.
“We fully expect Kosovo to become a full member of NATO one day and are working towards that. That’s all I can say on this matter for now. I would counter those who want to make comparisons and contrasts about who stands where in relation to whom. There’s significant engagement advancing the security of Kosovo, including if it decides to exercise its right to move towards NATO membership,” the American ambassador emphasized.
Regarding the regulation of the Central Bank of Kosovo (BQK)
He commented on the meeting with Bislimi concerning the BQK’s regulation.
“There were positive signs. And that was our effort on how we can continue to encourage positive movement. The position of the USA remains very clear on this issue. We respect the authority of the BQK, understand it is under its authority to govern monetary issues for the entire territory of the Republic of Kosovo,” said the American ambassador.
“This is not about the dinar; it’s about how the regulation is implemented, but we are concerned about the way it has been implemented, which my colleague Gabri Escobar spoke about last week, and the implementation has impacted the vulnerable population, especially, but not only, the Serbian community,” said Hovenier.
“We think it’s important to change the way of implementation to address these concerns, and our discussions on this are continuing. It’s good to see that there are possibilities from both Kosovo and Serbia to offer some evaluations on how this can be achieved with the meetings that will be held under the supervision of Lajčák. We welcome this,” he added.
Ambassador Hovenier stated that a fundamental point of the United States government’s policies is that each state should be free to make its own choices about alliances and organizations it belongs to.
“And indeed, this is a big part of our commitment and support for the people of Ukraine. We believe that the people of Ukraine should be able to decide if they want to be part of NATO or the European Union and not allow someone else to make those decisions for them. In this case, Russia. We are doing everything we can to stop Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, but the fundamental point is that states must decide for themselves,” said the American ambassador.
He appreciated that the USA has invested a lot of energy and effort to support the people of Kosovo and the Kosovo Security Force.
“We are very engaged, we conduct training, sell arms and equipment to support this goal. This remains our aim,” he added.
Source: Botasot.net
