The Presidency of Kosovo announced that the U.S. Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, Alexander Kasanof, confirmed that none of the decisions made so far by U.S. President Donald Trump “currently negatively impact Kosovo.”<\/p>\n
Bekim Kupina, media advisor to Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani, told Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty that Kasanof made this assurance during a meeting in Washington with Osmani’s Chief of Staff, Learta Hollaj.<\/p>\n
This statement from Kosovo\u2019s Presidency follows Trump\u2019s executive order signed on his inauguration day, which temporarily suspends all U.S. international aid programs for 90 days to review their alignment with his policy objectives.<\/p>\n
On January 21, Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty asked the U.S. Embassy in Pristina and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) if this decision would impact aid allocated to Kosovo but has not yet received a response.<\/p>\n
According to USAID\u2019s website, over $1 billion has been invested in Kosovo\u2019s development since 1999.<\/p>\n
Currently, USAID funds various activities in Kosovo, including support for legislative reforms, improving inclusivity and accountability, addressing corruption challenges, enhancing trade competitiveness, and more.<\/p>\n
Such aid has continued even amid U.S. and EU criticism of the Kosovo Government\u2019s decisions, mainly affecting the livelihoods of Serbs in majority-Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo. These include actions such as phasing out the Serbian dinar, land expropriation for constructing police bases, and shutting down parallel institutions operating under the Serbian system.<\/p>\n
In a press release issued by Kosovo\u2019s Presidency regarding this meeting, Kasanof reportedly emphasized the importance of continuing the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.<\/p>\n
This EU-facilitated dialogue, supported by the United States, aims to achieve full normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Presidency of Kosovo announced that the U.S. Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, Alexander Kasanof, confirmed that none of the decisions made so far by U.S. President Donald Trump “currently negatively impact Kosovo.” Bekim Kupina, media advisor to Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani, told Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty that Kasanof made this assurance during a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":75648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,1803],"tags":[308,243,151,3507,1250,2780],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n