Kosovo and Montenegro to Sign Border Deal

Rasko Konjevic, Montenegrin Interior Minister, and his Kosovo counterpart, Bajram Rehxepi, were scheduled to sign a demarcation agreement in Pristina on Wednesday.

"The demarcation [of the border] with a neighbouring country is Montenegro's obligation in the EU accession process," the Montenegrin Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Rexhepi said on Wednesday that "a demarcation agreement between Kosovo and Montenegro will be signed soon." But, despite expectations that ministers will sign the border deal, they agreed to itensify police cooperation by signing an agreement on this matter.

Kosovo and Montenegro started consultations on signing an agreement on border demarcation in 2012.

Montenegro has 79km-long border with Kosovo, in the northeast.

Residents of border villages near the Kosovo city of Pec have protested about the unlcear border on several occasions, owing to the fact that they hold property in Montenegro.

The government in Podgorica recognized Kosovo’s independence in 2008, much to the anger of Serbia, and of Serbs in Montenegro. Serbia maintains that Kosovo is a province of Serbia, although the two countries recently agreed to "normalise" relations.

Serbia asked the Montenegrin ambassador to leave the country, and it took a year before full diplomatic relations between the two countries resumed.

However, Kosovo and Montenegro have yet to open embassies in each other's capitals.
Recognition of the existence of a Montenegrin community in Kosovo has been one of the conditions set by the Montenegrin government before it will send an ambassador to Pristina.

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