Kosovo’s foreign policy priorities: What should be the focus of the new government?

11.03.2020

What are the foreign policy priorities of the new government? What kind of potential challenges does the Kosovo diplomacy faces? These were some of the main points discussed at the Tuesday’s Salon with the topic, “Kosovo’s foreign policy priorities: What should be the focus of the new government?”

During the discussion it was emphasized that the state of Kosovo’s foreign policy is not in a good condition, as a result of previous government’s poorly coordinated policies and failure to comply with legal provisions.

Another major challenge that Kosovo is facing is Serbia’s derecognition campaign which aims to persuade states to withdraw their recognition of Kosovo. This campaign has seriously hurt Kosovo’s state consolidation efforts. In response, Kosovo imposed trade tariffs on Serbian goods. Kosovo’s international allies have stated that the tariffs must be dropped completely in order to resume the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

The new government’s foreign policy priorities include: drafting a national strategy on foreign policy; functional review of foreign service and improving current legislation.

The panel consisted of four people: Fitore Pacolli, Member of the Parliament, Self-determination Movement; Leonora Kryeziu, Executive Director, Prishtina Institute for Political Studies – PIPS; Agon Maliqi, Policy Analyst and Donika Emini, Executive Director, CiviKos. The salon was moderated by Erblin Hoxha, Executive Director, Debate Center, whereas the op-ed will be written by Visar Xhambazi, Policy Researcher, Democracy for Development (D4D) Institute.

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