Germany Must Stop Dangerous Drive to Partition Kosovo

The US is applying massive pressure on Kosovo to accept such a deal - even though its main proponent on the Kosovo side, President Hashim Thaci, has been almost completely isolated domestically on the question.

Trump has undoubtedly pursued America's most anti-European policy in the postwar era. But he is only following a trail blazed by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and applying US muscle behind it.

Mogherini is collaborating with Trump's National Security Council, NSC, in advancing the long-standing Serbian agenda to redraw international borders along ethnic lines, an agenda driven by Serbian President and ostensible EU ally Aleksandar Vucic. Mogherini and the Americans have kept EU member states and NATO allies in the dark about these efforts.

This is a dramatic departure not just from a quarter-century of transatlantic cooperation in the Balkans but from a core principle of the current international order - that redrawing borders along ethnic lines is dangerous and will lead to destabilization and bloodshed.

There are good reasons why Russia's annexation of Crimea has met condemnation and the imposition of crippling sanctions; this has been a post-Cold War standard.

Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy during the meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, Serbia, 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

All pressure is currently being applied on the Kosovars; the US and the European External Action Service are openly siding with Belgrade, which - like Russia, China, and five EU member states - still view Kosovo as a breakaway province.

The Trump administration has dangerously escalated its aggressive stance on the matter: NSC...

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