Pristina, 10 June - Eleven years ago, on the 9th of June 1999, the so-called “Kumanovo Agreement”, was signed between the International Security Force (KFOR) and the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia. Along with the UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which was adopted on the 10th of June 1999, this agreement paved the way for the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) to enter Kosovo.

This Military Technical Agreement marked immediate cessation of hostilities and contributed to maintain a durable safe and secure environment and freedom of movement for all people in Kosovo. It included the required conditions for the deployment of KFOR and the necessary measures to control the borders and boundaries with adjacent countries and territories.

On that point, the agreement specified the necessity for KFOR “to establish liaison arrangements with local Kosovo authorities, and with FRY/Serbian civil and military authorities”. It also gave COM KFOR the authority “without interference or permission, to do all that he judges necessary and proper (…) to carry out the responsibilities inherent in this Military Technical Agreement and the Peace Settlement which it supports”.

Since this agreement has come in force, KFOR has organized regular meetings not only with official representatives of the Republic of Serbia, but also of Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro. The transfer of competence to the Kosovo Police for the control of the border with Albania is one of the latest results of those talks.

For the last eleven years, KFOR has thus been a guarantor of safety and security in Kosovo. On the 10th of June, one day after the 11th anniversary of the signing of the Military-Technical agreement, KFOR and Serbian officials will conduct their 350th meeting in the framework of the Joint Implementation Commission in order to assure peace and stability in the region.