German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Monday that the government of Kosovo can count on Germany's military to help support stability in the region amid growing tensions with neighboring Serbia.

Pistorius said that Germany planned to increase the number of soldiers serving in NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR), a peacekeeping mission that has been in place since the end of the Kosovo-Serbia conflict in 1999.

"Training is in full swing so that we will be ready for deployment as planned," the German defense minister said at a meeting with President Vjosa Osmani in the capital, Pristina, on Monday.

Pistorius said an additional 150 Bundeswehr soldiers would join the 90 already deployed in the region, starting in April.

What is behind the latest tension?

Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority wants more political authority at a time when Kosovo's government is trying to extend its power.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and although Serbia considers Kosovo to be a breakaway province, it is populated primarily by ethnic Albanian Muslims. NATO intervened to stop an armed conflict in the 1990s, during which Serb forces are accused of carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Kosovar Albanians.

Pistorius said on Monday that the US, Germany, and NATO partners had not provided security in the region since the 1990s "in order to watch the situation here destabilize again now or in the future."

In September 2023, tensions spiked for the first time in years when ethnic Serb gunmen stormed a majority Serb village in northern Kosovo and barricaded themselves in a Serbian Orthodox monastery. One policeman and three gunmen were killed.

On Monday, Kosovo's President Osmani called for increased protection at the border with Serbia, claiming it is used as a weapons smuggling route into northern Kosovo.

According to the Kosovo security forces, they confiscated weapons and military equipment for up to 400 fighters following shootouts with Serbian paramilitaries last year.

Appeals for stability

"Nobody can have an interest in having this situation get worse," said Pistorius on Monday during a visit to Kosovo. "In view of the current tensions with Serbia and the Serbian minority, we once again appeal for prudence and caution," he added.

"The order of the day is dialogue and de-escalation," he said, adding that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz "has emphasized very clearly that the future of the Western Balkans lies in the European Union. And that must be the way forward."

Kosovo formally applied to join the EU in 2022, and Serbia has been an EU candidate country since 2012. Membership negotiations can take many years, but they do serve as an incentive for cooperation.

"Serbia wants to join the European Union, just like Kosovo and other Western Balkan countries. This must remain our common goal," said Pistorius.

Mutual recognition of each other will be necessary for either Kosovo or Serbia to complete the accession process and join the EU.

wmr/msh (dpa, AFP)