US Congressmen in the Balkans, visit to Kosovo as well

Two American congressmen, Republican Keith Self and Democrat Suhas Subramanyam, will stay in Serbia today, where they will also visit the Presevo Valley, inhabited by an Albanian majority.

They will be received by the Speaker of the Serbian Parliament, Ana Brnabić, in Belgrade, from where they will travel to Preševo ​​tomorrow.

The mayor of this municipality in southern Serbia, Ardita Sinani, wrote on her Facebook profile that "Presheva welcomes the US Congressional delegation."

"A historic moment for the Valley," according to her.

At the initiative of Congressman Self, members of the Foreign Policy Committee of the House of Representatives of the US Congress approved a bill in January of this year, requiring the US Secretary of State to prepare a comprehensive report on the position of minorities in Serbia, with a special focus on Albanians in the Presevo Valley.

More than 60.000 Albanians live in Serbia, making them the fourth largest minority there, according to the last population census, in 2022.

In international reports, the Presevo Valley – which includes Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac – is considered completely isolated and is said to receive attention only during election times.

A day earlier, Self and Subramanyam stayed in Sarajevo, where they met with representatives of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There they discussed "ways to strengthen the bilateral partnership and support stability in the Western Balkans."

Through a post on the X platform, the US Embassy in Sarajevo underlined that the United States is committed to the Dayton Peace Agreement and the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the message published by the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the occasion of the congressmen's visit, the importance of the American commitment to the Dayton Agreement was also emphasized.

The two congressmen met with the First Deputy High Representative, Louis Crishock, "to discuss the political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina."

The delegation of American congressmen is expected to stay in Kosovo on Tuesday.

Last week, Kosovo's acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, announced that he had held a virtual meeting with a group of congressmen, among them Self.

"Bilateral defense cooperation between Kosovo and the United States is stronger than ever. This is largely due to the overwhelming bipartisan support that Kosovo enjoys in the US Congress," Kurti wrote on X, after that conversation.

In late April, Self, along with his colleagues, Ritchie Torres and Mike Lawler, proposed a resolution which aims to push forward Kosovo's path towards NATO.

The bipartisan resolution emphasizes, among other things, that "Kosovo's democratic governance, civilian oversight of security forces, and multiethnic coexistence constitute a compelling argument for NATO membership."

The GeoPost