Russian aggression in Ukraine has entered its fourth year and is unstoppable. Russian chauvinism knows no borders, nor international norms. Meanwhile, a war test has just been carried out in the Middle East: an adventurous act or a miscalculation could have activated, at the very least, nuclear materials. To get closer to the geography of uncertainty, not far in time, two years ago, Serbian paramilitary forces, sufficiently planned in Belgrade headquarters in terms of numbers, weapons, equipment, reserves, support and combat training, carried out an attack on the sovereign security forces of Kosovo in Banjska, with the aim of provoking a war front involving the entire information, police and military machinery of Serbia, to justify the re-occupation of Kosovo, or at least its northern part.
Meanwhile, Serbia, alongside its feverish campaign to gain the "status" of being unjustly punished internationally for the Kosovo issue, is increasingly arming itself with offensive weapons provided by Russia and China.
The NATO Summit has just been held, which expressed a substantial commitment to security and defense spending: allies to increase spending to 5% of GDP, which indicates that threats to security in the world are expected to be closer in time and sharper in severity.
And it is no longer a secret: Kosovo is an immediate target. The US President, a few days ago, stated that he had prevented a conflict between Kosovo and Serbia. It is not an academic matter to ask how, when, who, with what, etc. It is important that the head of the most powerful state currently in the world, among three conflicts with global consequences, mentioned the Kosovo-Serbia one. Speaking on July 10 at a lecture in Washington, President Osmani said that this statement by President Trump clearly refers to “the last few weeks” and that it is “about very, very late developments”.
This, then, is the security framework in Kosovo.
The questions that arise about guaranteeing this security are numerous and involve many actors and many areas.
First and foremost, the first question is posed to the homeowners, institutions, and Albanian people of Kosovo. If we accept that defense is, first and foremost, economics, then we will find that Kosovo is the second poorest country in Europe based on GDP per capita.
If we accept that political stability enables economic stability and consequently defense stability, then the almost shocking fact that after 46 attempts, the new Parliament has not yet been constituted, even though almost half a year has passed, then we will accept that the first to be affected are security and defense. And this happens precisely when the clouds over Kosovo's security remain dark: international recognitions have been stopped; relations with major natural allies have been damaged; the security situation in the region is threatened by many actors and factors.
NATO's presence in Kosovo is significant. "NATO is now much better prepared to project military, diplomatic and economic power on a scale that our adversaries cannot dream of achieving, thus preventing future wars," said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio these days. But, at the same time, we must get used to the normal historical trends that there are no eternal alliances, that NATO is not eternal either. Just as we must get used to the principle that you are primarily responsible for your own defense, that you must pay for defense, like any other good. Of course, Kosovo has defense and military plans, where investments and the provision of relevant weapons have also been made. The relevant organizations know whether they are sufficient to respond to all possible scenarios.
But the obligation also comes to Albania. Not for sick nationalism. It is a national, constitutional and moral obligation for any such parallel in the world. It is normal that Albania should have support plans for the brotherly state and people of Kosovo, moreover being a member of the Euro-Atlantic Alliance.
The question is what is Albania's power to do this not as a political statement, but as a factor with all-round economic, political, security and military weight. And the factorization begins with the activation of strategic levels, namely the National Security Council. But why doesn't the Albanian Parliament come up with a resolution on the tense situation?
Meanwhile, it is inevitable that, under these conditions, Albania, its government, supported by the opposition, will have to allocate a special budget. Otherwise, all political promises remain as electoral campaigns.
*Former Deputy Minister of Defense
(BalkanWeb)
