Latinovic: Kosovo without new recognitions because many countries have not found a reason to change their stance

Vice President of the Forum for International Relations, Branka Latinovic, claims that the fact that 28 countries withdrew their recognition of Kosovo's independence in recent years is a result of successful Serbian diplomacy. She states that the absence of new recognitions in the last three years indicates that many countries have not found a reason to change their stance.

The withdrawal of recognition of Kosovo's independence, according to Latinovic, reflects the hard work of Serbian diplomacy.

"It is primarily a reflection of the activities of Serbian diplomacy and the success it has achieved in convincing a certain number of countries about the need to withdraw recognition. Now, some have conditionally withdrawn it, some apparently permanently, but we will see what the final effect of all this will be. In any case, something happened that was not present in the earlier period and was expected by few, but it is primarily the result of hard work and success on the part of Serbia itself, or its diplomacy", Latinovic emphasized for Kosovo Online.

Apart from President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic's statement that 28 countries withdrew recognition of Kosovo since he took office, there have been no new recognitions in the last three years, with Israel being the last to do so in September 2020.

Latinovic points out that a considerable amount of time has passed since 2008 when Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, and many countries have come to realize the reality.

"When it comes to the fact that there has been no increase in the number of states recognizing Kosovo, one should primarily consider the reality that a considerable amount of time has passed since 2008 when the declaration of independence occurred. Many countries have understood what it meant and have not found elements or reasons to change their stance", Latinovic claims.

She points out that other actors in the international community, namely other countries supporting Kosovo, have not engaged in this matter either. As she emphasizes, they assessed it as a reality, and under current conditions, there is no space for changing the positions of individual countries.

"The current story revolves around these five EU member states, or four NATO members, which could recognize Kosovo. However, we see that nothing is happening there either. In other words, all of them have reiterated their previous stance that the issue of recognizing Kosovo is not on the agenda, and they maintain their previous positions", Latinovic concluded.