Ilic: Kurti is trying to establish the "geopolitical positions" of Pristina

Dusan Ilic, a collaborator at the Institute for European Studies, stated that Prime Minister Albin Kurti's "Balkan tour" should be seen as an attempt to establish the "geopolitical position" of Kosovo ahead of the arrival of the new American administration, which is why he has turned to "regional players" who have already been pursuing a pro-Albanian policy.

"Albin Kurti, ahead of the arrival of the new administration in Washington, is trying to establish his political and, we can freely say, geopolitical positions of the so-called state in Pristina. Of course, he will rely, as he has in the past, on those regional players who have pursued a pro-Albanian policy, or rather an anti-Serb policy. The best address for this is precisely the former Yugoslav republics that, together with Kosovo Albanian separatists, participated in the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. In this context, I would assess his visits to Zagreb, Ljubljana, and even the unofficial visit to Sarajevo, which was somewhat, at least in an attempt, formalized," Ilic said for Kosovo Online.

Commenting on the upcoming joint session of the parliaments of Kosovo and Albania, Ilic said that it has become a regular practice by which, according to him, the existence of "Greater Albania" is de facto legitimized.

At the same time, Ilic sees Kurti's tour as a "parallel" attempt to impose himself both domestically and internationally for Kosovo.

"It is a desire to act both domestically and internationally. Domestically, of course, it is a struggle with his political opponents, where he wants to establish himself as the protector of Albanian national interests, but also as someone who will preserve intact what Albanians have gained so far in negotiations with Belgrade and under the patronage of the West. Internationally, he wants to strengthen the position of the so-called state in Pristina before the change of administration in January when Donald Trump will take over the White House," Ilic specified.

According to him, the visit to the region has facilitated this goal.

"He didn’t even have to work hard to win the region to his side, because it is about a so-called unprincipled coalition, as it was called during the time of the SFRY, or an anti-Serb coalition from Ljubljana to Pristina that works against the Serbian people and generally against Serbian national interests. Therefore, he is practically welcome in Ljubljana, Zagreb, and Sarajevo precisely for these reasons, considering that this is, let's say, just a continuation of the traditional cooperation that these centers have had since the time of former Yugoslavia, and when they worked on the disintegration of the joint state," Ilic noted.

He assesses that, even without Kurti's regional tour, Serbia is currently in a very difficult position and is "vulnerable" due to current geopolitical events.

"We are in a particularly sensitive place and in a very vulnerable position, so we are vulnerable, unfortunately, due to demographics, vulnerable due to our geographical distribution. We are vulnerable, of course, because we opposed that NATO, American unipolar order in the '90s. And without this action by Albin Kurti, the current geopolitical moment does not play in our favor, at least for now. We will see in the near and distant future," Ilic believes.