The Ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States of America to the OSCE in Vienna visited the Republic of Kosovo on Tuesday 7 February as part of a regional tour of the Western Balkans.
The visiting group consisted of Ambassador Christine Fages (France), Ambassador Gesa Braeutigam (Germany), Ambassador Stephano Baldi (Italy), Ambassador Neil Bush (UK) and Ambassador Michael Carpenter (United States). As part of their regional tour, they also travelled to North Macedonia, and will next visit Serbia before returning to Vienna.
During the ambassadors’ visit to Kosovo, they held meetings with Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Minister of Foreign Affairs Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz, and Speaker of the Assembly Glauk Konjufca, also paying a visit to the Headquarters and Regional Centres of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo. In addition, the ambassadors also visited the training facility of the Kosovo Academy for Public Safety, supported by the OSCE, and met with civil society representatives.
The ambassadors stated ahead of their visit: “The Western Balkans is a hugely important region for the OSCE, and for the governments of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. We are very pleased to be able to visit Kosovo as a group during this visit, as well as North Macedonia and Serbia. We look forward to our meetings with representatives of government, parliament and civil society, and to seeing projects on the ground supported by the OSCE. We will reiterate the importance of continued making concrete progress in the EU facilitated dialogue, supported by all five of our countries, aimed at normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and will discuss how the OSCE can best support Kosovo’s democratic development across all OSCE dimensions and priority areas and rule of law reforms.”
