Albania and Croatia have opened an arms race by signing a memorandum of defense cooperation with Kosovo. This was stated by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, after the three countries signed a declaration in Tirana on March 18 to strengthen cooperation in the field of defense and security. Speaking after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Vučić stressed that the memorandum constitutes a violation of the sub-regional agreement and said he is convinced that NATO was not informed about it.
The Serbian president announced that he had raised the issue in the meeting with the head of the North Atlantic alliance, but did not reveal what Rutte said about it.
"It is a difficult situation for us, but we have understood their message. And, we will protect our country, we will deter them and we will always successfully defend it from any potential aggressor, even such a powerful aggressor. It is our duty to tell Mr. Rutte, the people in NATO and everyone else that this is a violation of the so-called subregional arms control agreement from 1996."
Vučić added that he and Rutte also discussed the situation in Kosovo and the relations between the Serbian Army and the NATO mission in Kosovo, KFOR, as well as the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rutte, meanwhile, wrote in X that he and the Serbian president discussed the critical importance of maintaining regional security, as well as how to continue to strengthen NATO-Serbia relations.
The Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora has described Serbia's objections to the defense cooperation initiative as a clear violation of the Brussels Agreements, which, it says, clearly stipulates that Serbia will not hinder Kosovo's international relations.
"Serbia's attempt to present itself as a 'guarantor of peace in the Balkans' is absurd. No state in the region and beyond has contributed more to the destabilization of the Western Balkans than Serbia, as historical facts and recent developments prove ," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
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