Kosovo–Montenegro border

A condition for visas

Kosovo and Montenegro signed a border demarcation agreement in 2015, and Montenegro’s parliament ratified it quickly. In Kosovo it became a political battle: the opposition Vetëvendosje (Self-Determination) movement argued it would wrongly cede some 8,000 hectares to Montenegro, a claim international experts denied. Its approval was a key condition for Kosovars to travel visa-free in the Schengen area.^[1]

In February 2018 Presidents Hashim Thaçi and Filip Vujanović signed a joint statement urging ratification and promising a joint body to address misunderstandings during demarcation.^[2] On 21 March 2018 Vetëvendosje MPs threw tear-gas canisters into the chamber to block the vote, but the parliament approved the agreement by 80 votes to 11, just enough for the required two-thirds. Albin Kurti called it treason; the US ambassador and the European Commission welcomed it.^[1]

“It’s a disaster for the country. Such messages should not be sent to our international friends.”^[1]

Unfinished on the ground

Four years later the line had still not been marked on the ground. Kurti, by then prime minister, said in March 2022 that he hoped to raise the issue with a new Montenegrin government, and Kosovo’s foreign minister, Donika Gervalla-Schwarz, said the 2018 statement allowed corrections at Chakor and Kula. Montenegro’s president, Milo Đukanović, replied that the demarcation had been finished in 2015, and its outgoing prime minister called Kurti’s remarks a provocation.^[2]