Jamie Shea calls on NATO to strengthen cooperation with Kosovo

Former NATO spokesman Jamie Shea has called for a deepening of the partnership with Kosovo. According to him, in order to achieve the goal of NATO membership, the Kosovo Government must establish good relations with officials in the new United States administration, but also with those in Brussels.

Former NATO spokesman during the war, Jamie Shea, has called on the North Atlantic alliance to deepen its partnership with the state of Kosovo.

In an interview with Kosovapress, Shea said that NATO must ensure that Kosovo's membership process does not stagnate.

"I have said myself, as a former NATO employee, that I hope that NATO will deepen the partnership with Kosovo, do more things, more training, more reforms in the security sector, more equipment, more interoperability, that the Kosovo Security Forces look more and more like a NATO force, to discuss the future form of those forces. I do not know when Kosovo will join NATO. But I am a big supporter of that direction. And I think the main thing is not to waste time, not to stagnate and to make sure that step by step, Kosovo continues to get closer to NATO, looks more like a NATO ally as the days go by," Shea said.

To achieve the goal of NATO membership, according to Shea, the Government must establish good relations with officials in the new US administration.

He also emphasized that the Government should strengthen relations with the European Union, as according to him they have weakened, following dissatisfaction in Brussels over the way the Kurti Government handled the situation in northern Kosovo.

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"We have to be honest, trust was broken a little bit in the last government, in the last EU administration, especially in relation to the way Pristina handled the situation in the north. Some of the statements that were made, some of the communications that were made. But I say in every interview that this doesn't make sense, because Kosovo's friends are in Brussels. Overall, Kosovo has a European future. Its integration into Europe is indispensable. This is what the people of Kosovo want. That's why you can't have a fight with your friends. We fight with enemies, not friends. And so I hope, again, that now we can have a new beginning," Shea said.

Shea said that US President Donald Trump is reflecting a greater focus on economic issues, so it is not clear at this time whether he will reduce US military forces in Kosovo. However, he said that the presence of US troops is important because it maintains the US focus on Kosovo's security.