The United States has accepted a request from Kosovo for the purchase of Javelin anti-tank missiles despite opposition from neighboring Serbia.
U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill said in a statement on January 11 that the request will be sent to Congress to begin the official procedure for completing the purchase.
Hill made the announcement after a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic during which the current tense relations between Belgrade and Pristina were discussed.
"This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security of the United States by improving the security of a European partner which is an important force for political and economic stability in Europe," the Defense Security Cooperation Agency of the Defense Department said in a news release.
The estimated cost of the Javelin missiles and related equipment is $75 million, the agency said, adding that Kosovo will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.
Vucic said the news was a "great disappointment," but that Serbia, together with the United States, will work to ensure continued solid Serbian-American relations.
"For us, it is very important that peace in the region is not broken and that Serbia continues to act responsibly and contribute to stability in the Balkans," Vucic said.
Kosovo's Defense Ministry told RFE/RL that the purchase of Javelin missiles and some other modern weapons systems is planned within the framework of increasing the military capacities of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF).
Liridona Gashi, a political adviser to Kosovar Defense Minister Ejup Maqedonci, said that the KSF is raising its military capacities and within this context a military agreement has been signed between Kosovo and the United States.
The European Union has mediated talks since 2013 aimed at normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia, which share a 366-kilometer border. But lingering resentments have persisted since Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 -- a move that Belgrade has refused to recognize -- and officials on both sides have been reluctant to abandon nationalist rhetoric in pursuit of a breakthrough.
Ethnic cleansing and other atrocities during fighting in the 1990s left many areas ethnically homogeneous, although ethnic Serbs predominate in northern Kosovo and ethnic Albanians are a majority in a few communities in southern Serbia. Belgrade refuses to recognize an independent Kosovo.
The United States has steadily supported the KSF and its 3,400-strong corps, which was turned into a regular army in December 2018, although its name has not been changed to armed forces as planned.
Pristina has set membership in the NATO military alliance as a policy goal, but has been warned by several countries, including the United States, that it must implement a peace deal with Serbia to move forward.
Further complicating the process, Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, is not recognized as a state by four NATO members: Romania, Spain, Greece, and Slovakia.