Serbia to request permission to deploy its troops in Kosovo

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic speaks during a joint news conference with former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Hungary's President Katalin Novak, at the Hungarian-Serbian border barrier near Kelebia, Hungary, December 15, 2022. REUTERS/Marton Monus

BELGRADE (Reuters) - The Serbian government will ask the NATO peacekeeper commander to allow the country to send up to 1,000 police and army personnel to Kosovo, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday.

It is the first time Belgrade has requested to deploy troops in Kosovo since a United Nations Security Council resolution ended the 1998 to 1999 war, during which NATO bombed rump-Yugoslavia comprising Serbia and Montenegro to protect Albanian-majority Kosovo.