Montenegro and Macedonia recognized Kosovo yesterday. Coincidentally, this raises the number of countries recognizing to exactly 50.
Macedonia and Montenegro are small countries, but they have outsized importance because (1) they’re neighbors of both Serbia and Kosovo, (2) they’re EU-members-to-be, and (3) they’re former Yugoslav Republics. So while this is no surprise, it’s still interesting.
I had some thoughts on this, but Radio Free Europe has already beaten me to most of them. (Yes, yes, I know about RFE. It’s a good article anyway, check it out.) One particularly interesting point: by co-ordinating their recognition, the two countries have given each other a certain amount of cover, diplomatically speaking.
I’ve said before that I expect a slow trickle of countries recognizing Kosovo gradually tapering off, until a plateau of between 50 and 60 is reached sometime next year. We’ll see soon enough!
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Feed: A Fistful of Euros
October 11th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
who said that FYROM is a EU member to be…???!!!
don’t you people follow up the news???
there is not a single chance for that morphoma to become either NATO or EU member until it aknologes historical, cultural and political facts.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:03 am
as for the recognition of kossovo, Albania had no other way of absorbing that piece of land, except having it recognised as independent from Serbia… You are all working for the big albanian picture and you don’t even know it, or even worse… you believe we don’t know it!!!
well… breaking news for you: neither fyrom, nor kossovo will ever be globally recognised!
look at the case of Cyprus.
35 years later and almost zero progress!
And they had our sovereign State to back them up all the way and hard!
and which is the sovereign state behind kossovo and fyrom…?
albania…? the lake of kondoliza…?
October 13th, 2008 at 12:28 am
You’re right Mr Muir, as usual. Except the RFE article. The “Change in direction” part is a comlete fallacy. Serb people and their political class are far from the change the author tries to sell the readership. I am too knowledgeable on Balkanistan issues to buy that.
As far as Montenegrins are concerned, they have done a good job on distancing themselves from the Serb identity. I have witnessed it personally. By calling them blood brothers, the Serbs serve us one more proof that they live in a different reality.
Let’s see what happens today (13) in Podgorica. Serbs have their own definition of “peaceful rally”.
For further recognitions we can only wait and see who will replace Bush in January.
Oh and the (semi-analphabet) “orthodox brother” is quite amusing. Don’t cut them, please.
October 13th, 2008 at 3:12 am
“35 years later and almost zero progress!
And they had our sovereign State to back them up all the way and hard!”
An independent Kosovo has secured recogition from more than one state–it has gotten the G-7 countries, for instance.
October 13th, 2008 at 3:14 am
What do you make of the case before the International Court of Justice on the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence?
October 13th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Richard, that probably deserves a post of its own.
Doug M.
October 13th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Clashes Erupt in Montenegro over Kosovo
October 14th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
[...] For Serbia, Montenegro’s decision to recognize Kosovo is especially painful since Montenegro only separated from Serbia in 2006, but it may be precisely because of that that the government in Podgorica opted to recognize Kosovo’s independence. Of course, Macedonia’s decision is hardly less problematic since it, too, used to be part of Yugoslavia. Douglas Muir, at Afoe, has more on this. [...]
October 15th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
[...] “coincidentally, this raises the number of countries recognizing to exactly 50.” He described the significance of the event in general terms: […] Macedonia and Montenegro are small countries, but they have outsized [...]
October 19th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
[...] Douglas Muir, novinar A Fistful of Europe, primećuje da ’ovo izgleda podiže broj zemalja koje su priznale Kosovo na tačno 50’. Muir je u opštim crtama opisao koliko je ovaj događaj značajan: [...]