An incomplete independence

Troop decision for nato

NATO is considering reducing its peacekeeping presence in Kosovo – known as Kfor – which currently stands at some 14,500 soldiers.
“There are far too many [NATO] soldiers in Kosovo, which is not a hostile environment compared with Afghanistan,” one diplomat told European Voice.
The issue is not yet on the agenda of NATO's 60th anniversary summit, to be held in early April in Strasbourg, France, and Baden-Baden, Germany, but there is a growing view that in strictly military terms, Kfor could be reduced in line with a revised operations plan that is now being drafted.
The decision will, however, be political. Some NATO members worry that a troop reduction would send the wrong signal to Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority. Others fear they might be asked to step up their contribution to NATO operations in Afghanistan if they pull out of Kosovo.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo's near-neighbour to the north-west, is another reason why not all NATO members think a reduction in the size of Kfor is a good idea.
The annual threat assessment submitted to the Senate intelligence committee last week (12 February) by Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence in the US, read: “The principal challenges to stability [in the Balkans] will come from the unresolved political status of the Serb minority in Kosovo, particularly in northern Kosovo, and Bosnia-Herzegovina's continuing uneasy inter-ethnic condominium.”
Diplomats describe Kfor as “some sort of reserve force for Bosnia” and the 2,100 EU peacekeepers there. The two missions share ‘over-the-horizon forces' that could be brought in as reinforcements – although they have been described as “figures on a spreadsheet compiled by military planners”, since they would need a fortnight to arrive in the area.