2023-10-06 15:25:45
Austria will provide fewer soldiers for the NATO-led KFOR operation in Kosovo in the future. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense confirmed corresponding German media reports to the APA on Friday. In the future, around 120 fewer Austrian soldiers will be stationed in Kosovo. The ministry emphasized that this had nothing to do with the current situation in Kosovo. The change was decided a long time ago.
The background is that Austria is providing 500 soldiers for the EU Battlegroup 2025. Their training will begin next year. According to the ministry, another company will remain in reserve for the KFOR operation in Kosovo after the planned withdrawal of soldiers in April 2024. Overall, more Austrian soldiers will be available for foreign missions in the future than before, said the spokesman.
The Austrian KFOR contingent is stationed in an area of Kosovo that is not affected by the recent unrest. For years, the Kosovo mission was by far the largest foreign deployment of the Federal Army. There are currently 262 soldiers stationed there, seven fewer than in the EUFOR operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in which Austria provides the commander and around a quarter of the entire force.
The opposition SPÖ criticized the withdrawal as a “fatal signal”. “Neutral Austria should stand out with increased commitment to peace missions, not with a weakened one,” demanded SPÖ defense spokesman Robert Laimer in a broadcast on Friday. “Especially when trouble spots flare up all over the world due to Russian aggression. The federal government itself repeatedly emphasizes how important the Western Balkans are for Austria, but is not prepared to make its contribution to this essential peace mission.”
The “Spiegel” first reported that the German government wanted to send more Bundeswehr soldiers to Kosovo. Accordingly, the Chancellery approved the military’s plans to send 150 soldiers to Pristina next year. A spokesman for the German Ministry of Defense confirmed the report to the Archyde.com news agency on Friday.
The German Ministry of Defense also emphasized that the decision had nothing to do with the current tensions in the north of Kosovo. This is therefore not an increase in KFOR troops.
Great Britain and Romania, on the other hand, want to strengthen their troops. There are currently around 3,400 KFOR forces stationed in Kosovo. Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have increased since September 24, when 30 armed Serbs attacked a Kosovo police station in the north of the country.
There is a UN Security Council mandate from 1999 for the KFOR operation. A total of 28 states are involved, eight of which are not members of NATO. Around 50,000 Serbs live in northern Kosovo, but over 90 percent of Kosovo’s total population are ethnic Albanians. Both sides blame each other for the recent escalation. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but this is not recognized by either the government in Belgrade or the Serbian minority in Kosovo.
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