The United States has announced plans to sell anti-tank missiles to Kosovo, after accepting Pristina’s request to purchase 246 Javelin missiles, the State Department confirmed on Thursday.
The missiles are similar to those previously supplied by NATO to Ukraine, which used them to destroy Russian armoured vehicles.
The sale, valued at $75 million, includes all missile-related equipment. It will “enhance Kosovo’s long-term capabilities to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the State Department said.
While technically, the US Congress can still block the sale, that is seen as unlikely.
Thursday's announcement came on the heels of Kosovo's suspension of a requirement for Serbia-registered cars entering its territory to disguise Serbian symbols on their number plates, following a similar decision by Serbia. The European Union, which oversees the dialogue between the former adversaries, hailed this as “a positive step.”
Kosovo and Serbia have suffered a series of crises since the war between Serbian forces and Albanian separatists, which ended in 1999 with NATO’s intervention against Belgrade.
Kosovo, with a Serb minority of 120,000 out of a total population of 1.8 million, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade has never accepted it.
Relations were further strained by the inauguration in May of Albanian mayors in four majority-Serbian cities in northern Kosovo, following a local-election boycott by Serbian voters.
