NATO declines Serbia's request to deploy its troops in Kosovo

FILE PHOTO: 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/File Photo

SHTERPCE, Kosovo (Reuters) -NATO's mission in Kosovo, KFOR, has declined a Serbian government request to send up to 1,000 police and army personnel to Kosovo after clashes between Serbs and the Kosovo authorities, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday.

Serbia's former province of Kosovo declared independence in 2008 following the 1998-1999 war during which NATO bombed rump-Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, to protect Albanian-majority Kosovo.