KATHMANDU, Nov 3: Diplomats from Kosovo, a self-declared independent country in the Balkan region of Europe, have held talks with leaders from various political parties and civil society members in Nepal to make their case for Nepal's recognition of Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state.
They held meeting with former prime minister and lawmaker Madhav Kumar Nepal, who is also a member of Parliamentary Committee on International Relations, senior Nepali Congress leader and lawmaker Prakash Man Singh and various other politicians and civil society leaders to convince them why Kosovo deserves to be recognized as a sovereign and independent country by Nepal.
Ambassador of Kosovo to Japan, Leon Malazogu, who was in Kathmandu to lobby for Nepal's recognition of Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state, argued that Kosovo is a state formed in accordance with international law as it fulfills all requirements for statehood pursuant to general international law.
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“Kosovo's declaration of independence was an expression of the genuine will of its people and for the benefit of all of its citizens. It was an inescapable necessity, dictated both by history and brutal repression inflicted upon the people of Kosovo,” the envoy said.
Ambassador Malazogu maintained that since Kosovo declared its independence in compliance with the political process led by the United Nations, as envisaged in the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 of June 10, 1999 there are no genuine reasons for Nepal not to recognize Kosovo as sovereign and independent country.
“The declaration of independence was justified on legal, moral and political grounds and was also the result of an UN-led international process for determining Kosovo's status,” the envoy further said.
Kosovo was a part of Serbia, which was one of the six constituent republics of the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Serbia lost control of the Albanian majority country when NATO air strikes backed by the US and European powers forced Belgrade to withdraw its troops in 1999.
While still under international administration amid tension with Serbia, elected parliament of Kosovo had officially declared independence of Republic of Kosovo on February 17, 2008. The declaration brought to an end the conclusion of an unprecedented situation that began with the dissolution of former Yugoslavia and the international administration of Kosovo from 1999-2008.
Altogether 116 countries have so far recognized Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state. In South Asia, Bangladesh recognized Kosovo as an independent and sovereign country in 2017 following suit to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Although several Western countries including the US, the UK, Germany, France and Australia are among those recognizing this landlocked nation as an independent state, Serbia, its ally Russia and several other countries have refused to recognize the 2008 declaration of independence of Kosovo, maintaining that the ICJ's ruling could set a precedent of endorsing secession in other places as well.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its advisory opinion on July 22, 2010 declared that "the adoption of the declaration of independence of the 17 February 2008 did not violate general international law because international law contains no 'prohibition on declarations of independence".
