Kosovo lifts ban on entry of products from Serbia at the border

PRISTINA, Kosovo -- Kosovo’s government said Monday it would lift a ban on the entry of products from Serbia at one border crossing, 16 months after it halted imports to prevent what it said could be hidden shipments of weapons for Serb separatists.

The reopening is in line with efforts by Western partners to promote reconciliation and cooperation between the two neighboring Balkan nations. Tensions between them flared in May 2023 when Kosovo police seized municipal buildings in Serb-majority communities in northern Kosovo where residents rejected the ethnic Albanian mayors elected in a vote boycotted by Serbs.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said the Merdare border crossing would reopen with stepped-up, hands-on monitoring of goods by customs agents at a location just 300 meters from the border.

The other five border crossings would open once they can be equipped with new scanners, he said.

Kosovo has cited the seizure of four large caches of weapons that Kurti says could have been brought through the border disguised as trade, as well as the movements of troops by Serbia near the border, as reasons for its move in June 2023 to curb cross-border trade.

“These were steps of security, never commercial ones,” Kurti told journalists Monday.

Local media in Kosovo have reported that Germany warned Kosovo that unless it reestablished trade it could be excluded from the Central European Free Trade Agreement and the Berlin Process, aimed at boosting cooperation among six western Balkan nations and the European Union.

Kosovo was a Serbian province until NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which left about 13,000 dead, mainly ethnic Albanians, and pushed Serbian forces out. Kosovo proclaimed independence in 2008, which Serbia doesn’t recognize.

The European Union and the United States are pressing both sides to implement agreements that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kurti reached in February and March last year. They include a commitment by Kosovo to establish an Association of the Serb-Majority Municipalities. Serbia is also expected to deliver on the de-facto recognition of Kosovo, which Belgrade still considers its province.

The NATO-led international peacekeepers known as KFOR have increased their presence in Kosovo after last year’s tense moments.

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Semini reported from Tirana, Albania. Follow Semini at https://x.com/lsemini