
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti traveled to France on Friday for an official visit, where he is expected to meet with President Emmanuel Macron. The Kosovo government has not provided further details about the meeting.
But Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić claimed on Thursday night on Prva television in Belgrade that Prime Minister Kurti could ask the French leader to fulfill some conditions "against the Serbian people."
According to the Serbian president, Kurti went to Paris with "two demands": that Serbia be conditioned to never use weapons against Albanians, namely against Kosovo, and that NATO leave the land security zone, so that the Kosovo Security Force can go to the north of the country inhabited by a Serb majority.
Vučić claims that he learned about "Kurti's agenda in Paris" through "our people in Kurti's circle."
Among other things, Vučić said that he hopes that NATO "will not support these demands and I am sure that Macron will not support them either."
"This would be a direct attack on peace, a direct attack on our population, on all of Serbia, and I am almost certain that this will not happen," Vučić said.
Radio Free Europe has asked the Kosovo Government for its position on Vučić's claims, but has not yet received a response. Kosovo's concerns about Serbia's arming and the north
Vučić’s claims come as Kosovo authorities have expressed concern after Serbia purchased CM-400 supersonic ballistic missiles from China earlier this month. Kosovo’s Defense Minister, Ejup Maqedonci, told Radio Free Europe on March 13 that Serbia, through these purchases, is displaying “hegemonic tendencies” towards neighboring countries. About a week later, Kurti accused Belgrade of showing “aggression” after the Serbian military conducted exercises on March 19 in a village inhabited by ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia, on the border with Kosovo.
He said at the time that "we are deeply concerned about Serbia's unjustified military demonstration, with helicopters and paratroopers, in areas inhabited by Albanians in Bujanovac, very close to the border with Kosovo."
But the NATO mission in Kosovo told Radio Free Europe that those exercises posed no risk and that it had been notified in advance by Belgrade that the Serbian Armed Forces would conduct planned exercises in the village of Muhovc, near Kosovo's southern border.
KFOR is responsible for the security of Kosovo's borders with Serbia, while the rest of the border line is the Kosovo Police.
Kosovo and Serbia share a border line about 400 kilometers long. The Kosovo Security Force, KSF, is not allowed to enter the Serb-majority north without prior approval from the NATO peacekeeping mission, based on a 2013 commitment by the Kosovo government to NATO.
This commitment, given through a letter from former Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi to the then NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, remains in force today, despite changes in the KSF's mandate.
The last time the KSF was in the north, with the consent of KFOR, was on July 29, 2025, in an operation when it found the body of a person who had jumped from a bridge into Lake Ujman. The KSF is in the process of transforming into an army, following approved legal changes. This process is expected to be completed in 2028. (REL)