U.N.S.C.’s Autumn Discussion on Kosovo

On Oct. 30, the United Nations Security Council will be discussing U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s latest six-month report on the operation of the United Nations’ Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), while Belgrade and Serbia will pre represented at the session by their respective foreign ministers.

The U.N.S.C. sit-down is scheduled to commence at 4:00 p.m. Central European Time, amidst – according to Guterres’s report – ongoing tensions in Kosovo, which have the potential to escalate.

Foreign Minister Marko Djuric will appear for Serbia, while Kosovo will be represented by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Donika Gervalla-Schwarz.

In the report on the period between March 16 and Sept. 15, 2024, which will be presented by UNMIK head Caroline Ziadeh, Guterres has called on both sides to re-assert their commitment to the dialogue mediated by the EU and to fully implement all agreements reached so far.

“Unilateral actions, including the closure of institutions financed by Serbia and the steps taken toward reopening Mitrovica’s Bridge on the Ibar, as well as limiting Serbian goods and applying new currency regulations, increase tensions and undermine trust between communities and between communities and institutions,” Guterres wrote.

Since the adoption of U.N.S.C. Resolution 1244 on June 10, 1999, the Council discussed Kosovo four times a year until 2019, when three meetings on Kosovo were held. As of 2020, the body has convened to discuss the issue twice a year, every April and October.