President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani spoke on Friday at the World Leaders Forum.

On Friday, President Vjosa Osmani of the Republic of Kosovo spoke about the process of strengthening the young country’s statehood and gaining international recognition, as well as current foreign policy challenges in the Western Balkans and globally in a talk moderated by Alexander Cooley, director of the Harriman Institute.

To begin the talk, Osmani spoke about her own experiences with education and the value of democracy. Under legislation passed by Serbian president Milošević in 1989, she, along with other Kosovan citizens, was kicked out of school in second grade. The ability to create a parallel education system to fill that gap, she said, was vital for their “survival as a country and a people”. Now, as Kosovo looks to invest significantly more of its budget in human capital resources like healthcare, youth jobs, and education, she says that is because “I strongly believe [education] is the biggest and most important foundation of any successful democracy around the world.” 

The other thing that Milošević’s rule emphasized to Osmani, and other Kosovans, was the value of democracy, saying, “Looking back at the history of the Balkans and the destruction the wars brought there, every one of us needs to learn a lesson of what happens when there is a recession on democracy.” She described her experience during Milošević’s rule and the war as a “lesson of what happens when…there is an appeasement towards autocrats or war criminals.” 

But as Cooley brought up, it seems as though democracy is on its back foot around the world as autocracies consolidate power and existing states struggle. She talked about the nationalism and autocracy that has been strengthening next door in Serbia, noting that the language being used now is very similar to that used during Milošević’s rule. She described the policies that draw on ethnic differences and divides as “a logic that belongs to the nineteenth century…these kinds of mindsets have brought bloodshed, brought destruction and quite a lot of human suffering.” 

Kosovo’s strong commitment to democracy has been increasingly important as other countries in the region lean towards autocracy. She noted that many in Kosovo have been “uneasy” with the language being used by the Serbian government due to how similar it is to language used before the war. Kosovo, meanwhile, remains strongly committed not just to democracy, but also to resisting autocratic influence, which is why US and other NATO countries have viewed it as an important ally to maintain stability in the Balkans. For that reason, Osmani said, she wasn’t concerned about the US similarly pulling support following the recent withdrawal from Afghanistan. But the withdrawal from Afghanistan still has repercussions in the country: Kosovo was the first nation to receive refugees from the country, and, Osmani said, will host as many as their resources can allow. “For us,” she said, the scenes from Afghanistan “brought back every single memory of what we had to go through [during the war]. For that reason, we couldn’t close the doors.”

But even with Kosovo’s commitment to democracy, dictatorial influence has been growing in the region. She singled out Russia and Serbia as countries that have been trying to increase their influence throughout the region through a variety of methods, including distribution of the Russian COVID vaccine. She said that Kosovo was the only country in the region to reject Russian vaccines in favor of waiting for those approved by US and EU regulators. But joint Serbian and Russian pressure towards Kosovo and interference in countries like Montenegro poses a danger to the region, she said, which is reminiscent to many of the conflicts of the 1990s.

These are not just abstract concerns. Tensions have been spiking between Serbia and Kosovo in recent days because a freedom-of-movement agreement, meant to be renewed in 2021, between the two countries expired. Thus, Kosovo has begun enforcing a policy of removing Serbian license plates from incoming vehicles and replacing them with temporary Kosovan license plates. This is a reciprocal move, given that Serbia has been doing the same thing to Kosovan license plates since 2011, when the agreement was first signed. Osmani said that, since Kosovo has accepted an interim, EU-backed agreement and Serbia has so far refused to, the international community should step in and stop “treating [Serbia] as the spoiled child of Europe.”

Freedom of movement is an important tenet for Kosovo, which set in motion a process to obtain visa liberalization in the EU back in 2012. Since then, Kosovo has met all 95 benchmarks set in place for that to occur, but the EU has not yet granted liberalization. Talks are needed with two or three member countries, Osmani said, who still have their doubts about Kosovo, but it’s also time for the EU to begin implementing their promises.

In the end, Osmani believes, it’s not really about the politics. She may disagree with leaders from Poland or the Czech Republic about the best direction for their countries or the Balkans, but politicians are transient compared to the people of their countries. And the Kosovo War, even now, shapes that. “Beyond my obligation as a politician, I always think that before that it is my obligation as a human being to remember every soul lost, every life lost, and to also do it for them,” she said. “Only then you truly understand the true weight and the true responsibility of your job.”

Osmani at Columbia WLF via Zoom event screenshot