Hashim Thaci

The new Prime Minister of Kosovo says clear grounds exist to sack President Hashim Thaci, for having violated the constitution by signing a secret agreement with NATO limiting the powers of the security forces when he was prime minister.

Almost five years since Kosovo's parliament approved the establishment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Prosecutor's Office, chief prosecutor Jack Smith has notified the president of the Specialist Chambers of his intention to initiate proceedings before the Hague-based 'special court', it was announced on Monday.

The Kosovo Foreign Ministry on Friday promised to take action over false information that Jamaica had recognised the country's independence, which reportedly came from the ambassador in Washington.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci announced on social media Thursday that he has been informed by Kosovo Ambassador Vlora Chitaku that Jamaica has recognized Kosovo as sovereign and independent.

Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci wrote on Twitter on Thursday that Ambassador Vlora Citaku has notified him that Jamaica had recognized Kosovo's independence.
However, Jamaican MFA Johnson-Smith re-tweeted Thaci's claim of recognition by her country with a short comment, clearly saying that "to date, Jamaica has not recognized Kosovo as an independent state".

Serbian and Kosovo officials have congratulated Richard Grenell - the US ambassador to Germany and US Special Envoy on the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue - on his new appointment as acting director of National Intelligence in the US, where he will oversee the work of some 17 agencies until a permanent appointment is made.

Albanian Acting Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gent Cakaj said he had proposed to Pristina to launch a campaign to recognize the unilaterally declared Kosovo state through joint funding.

"We can discuss things that pertain to the economic progress, we have no problem with that, but we will not discuss the status until the fees are abolished. That is on hold, and we are waiting for the fees to be abolished", Vucic said when asked by Al Jazeera journalists in Munich, where he participates in the Munich Security Conference.

But not all "nationalisms" in the Western Balkans are the same. Many of them, at least initially, were a reaction to Serbia's aggressions and to the four wars it led under Slobodan Milosevic.

Japan has since announced that its ambassador-designate to Kosovo in 2019 will be its former ambassador to Mozambique from 2014-17, Akira Mizutani. Based in Vienna, he serves also as Ambassador to Austria. Mizutani has served in Japan's foreign ministry for decades, in embassies such as Turkey, Germany and Pakistan.