After the formation of the Government of Kosovo, Montenegro will once again submit a request for the formation of a joint body that should carry out the marking of the border between the two countries.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs claims that the Kosovo Government did not respond to the request that the official Podgorica sent to them last year.
"Last year, the Ministry of the Interior sent an initiative through diplomatic channels to organize a meeting of the state commissions for the border of Montenegro and Kosovo with the aim of implementing the Agreement on the State Border, in order to mark the state borders determined by the Agreement within two years from the entry into force of the Agreement. Bearing in mind that the Government of Kosovo has resigned and that parliamentary elections have been held, Montenegro will once again initiate the implementation of the Agreement after the new Government takes office. Any other reaction from Montenegro, at this moment, could be considered interference in the internal affairs of Kosovo", said the president of the Commission for Demarcation Affairs, Milan Paunović.
The agreement on the state border between Montenegro and Kosovo was signed in Vienna on August 26, 2015, but the Kosovo parliament ratified it three years later due to the opposition's disagreement with the established borders.
The coalition led by the resigned Prime Minister of Kosovo, Ramuš Haradinaj, claimed that Kosovo lost 8.000 hectares of territory through the delimitation agreement, demanding the correction of borders near Čakor.
At that time, they claimed that the katuns used by the residents of Peć belonged to Montenegro. After a series of incidents in which sessions were interrupted by the throwing of tear gas, the Kosovo Parliament ratified the Agreement on Demarcation after Presidents Hashim Tači and Filip Vujanović sent a joint call stating, among other things, that the working group for demarcation "will, if necessary, reconsider and possibly correct the sectors in the direction of Čakora and Kulla e Zhlipt (Žljeb)".
They then recalled that this possibility is provided for in Article 7 of the Agreement on Demarcation.
The leader of the Self-Determination movement, Aljbin Kurti, who is the winner of the parliamentary elections held in Kosovo, said that the demarcation with Montenegro is not a closed issue. Kurti told Albanian Television Klan that it is necessary to form a joint working body that will correct the demarcation.
"The agreement that was ratified in the Assembly of Kosovo foresees this. There is an agreement signed in Podgorica in 2018 by the then Montenegrin president Filip Vujanović and Kosovo's Hasim Thači, which mentions the correction of the border near Čakor and Žljeb. We will do our best to resolve it through a direct dialogue with the official Podgorica", said Kurti, stating that they will also discuss the Dečani-Plav road.
Although Kurti was one of the opponents of the adoption of the Agreement on Demarcation, political analyst from Kosovo Eraldin Fazliu reminds that the potential prime minister of Kosovo did not deal with Montenegro during the election campaign.
Unlike him, Haradinaj stated in Pec that there were mistakes during the demarcation and said that he had discussed the issue with Montenegrin leaders.
Haradinaj then said that "the two Montenegrin leaders are not against fixing it".
"Kurti repeated on numerous occasions that Kosovo lost more than 8.000 hectares and accused Haradinaj of supporting the agreement after he became prime minister. However, Kurti did not mention the border issue with Montenegro during the election campaign, nor did he announce that he would do something about it. I do not believe that it will be among his priorities because the Agreement has already been ratified in both parliaments and there is almost no room for corrections. "I don't see the issue of borders in the Self-Determination agenda, given the numerous internal problems that the future prime minister will have to deal with," said Fazliu.
For Kurti, the talks with Serbia are more important
Fazliu believes that dialogue with Serbia will be more important for the future Prime Minister of Kosovo than new negotiations with Montenegro.
"Kurti promised to check all contracts signed with Serbia that were agreed in 2013 through the Brussels dialogue. He mentioned that after the announcement of the election results. This confirms that his priorities and subject of interest will be relations with Serbia, while it is difficult to expect the issue of borders with Montenegro to be extended, which he did not even mention in the campaign," said Fazliu.
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