Kesic: A major advantage for Albanians in the US is their well-positioned community

Analyst and expert on the American political scene, Obrad Kesic, tells Kosovo Online that the United States does not agree with the tactics used by Albin Kurti or the timing of certain actions he takes and that this disagreement has led to a lack of significant public successes in meetings with American officials, despite the Kosovo government's engagement of lobbying agencies in Washington.

According to Kesic, the US believes it would be much more effective to continue the negotiation process with Belgrade. The problem, however, is that Pristina is very impatient and wants to achieve all its goals overnight, while Washington, and even Brussels, understand that this is impossible.

"It might even be impossible to achieve the most desirable result, which is mutual recognition. Still, they believe that with patience, the path toward normalizing relations should be built through negotiations. The US does not like it when any side unilaterally does something that disrupts the negotiations or even sets the entire process back. This has happened several times with Pristina, leaving them, especially Kurti, isolated in terms of their policy. Consequently, lobbyists encounter closed doors. Where they could easily show success and schedule meetings at a significant level, those doors are no longer open, which describes the current relationship between Washington and Pristina," Kesic said.

However, Kesic points out that there has long been a very capable and strong Albanian lobby in the US, which, he says, is something that cannot be compensated for with money. This refers to Albanian communities, regardless of where these Albanians come from. He emphasizes that they are very well organized and actively participate in public and political life in the US.

"They are quite active and have positioned themselves well in terms of communication, especially with members of the US Congress. This is a significant advantage that Albanians have in the US When we talk about lobbying, there are three measures of how effective lobbying is. The first measure is this – how active the community is, and here we must tip our hats and acknowledge that Albanians are very active, well organized, and appear, which is very important, at all major political events, from local election races to now the presidential election race. The second very important thing is that they have allies who have built their positions within the American government structure over the past three decades. They may not agree with Pristina or like, or even now respect, Mr. Kurti, but that is less important in the sense that they generally support the political and national goals that have been well-defined by Pristina over the past two decades. And this is an advantage because, in the American government structures, they practically share the same goals with the political elite in Pristina," Kesic notes.

As the third measure, Kesic highlights the effectiveness of cooperation between the government in Pristina and the American administration and notes that there are problems in this area.

"Several times, the American administration has been unhappy with certain moves coming from Pristina, and now we are even entering a problematic phase in relations between Washington and Pristina. But because they essentially share the same goal, which is to consolidate the independence of so-called Kosovo, it doesn't matter when disagreements and conflicts arise because the general agenda, which they have jointly written in some way, is more important than the current conflict over tactics," Kesic said.

He assesses that Pristina is currently in a hurry because, like many, they fear that after the elections in the US in November, they will completely lose momentum and that things will change in a way that does not favor them.

Because of this, Kesic explains, we now see moves from Pristina that create tension in relations with Washington and Brussels because they believe that if they do not achieve some significant results by the end of this year, especially by the start of the US elections, it will become increasingly difficult to achieve their maximalist goals.

"They now see that the window for success is closing and fear that Donald Trump will return, who absolutely has no interest in engaging the US more than it was during his first term. At that time, the Albanians did not have the strong support from Washington they were used to, and at one point, things completely turned around, and Belgrade found itself in an influential position with the Trump administration. For a short period, Serbia had an advantage in every aspect of relations with the US This is the fear that is now, in some way, pushing things much faster than many in Washington would like to see, and this creates tension and sometimes isolates Kurti in relations with America," Kesic concluded.