Kosovo's Declaration of Independence
from Serbia in 2008 divided the
international community while it was
quickly recognized by the United States
and much of the European Union its claim
to independence was rejected by Russia
China and many regional powers since
then Kosovo and Serbia have waged an
intensive diplomatic battle over
recognition this has led to claim and
counterclaim over the exact number of
countries that have now recognized
Kosovo in this video I'm going to give
my best assessment for the actual number
of recognitions and explain why it's so
hard to get a precise figure hello my
name is James : C welcome to independent
thinking a channel dedicated to
international relations independent
statehood and the origins of countries
Kosovo has emerged as one of the most
significant cases of secession in modern
international politics its unilateral
declaration of independence from Serbia
on the 17th of February 2008 split
international opinion over a dozen years
later debate still rages over its status
more to the point the fierce diplomatic
battle that has raged between Serbia and
Kosovo means that producing an exact and
university accepted figure for the
number of countries that have accepted
Kosovo as an independent state has
proven to be very difficult indeed so
how many countries have in fact
recognized Kosovo before delving into
the question it's worth briefly
outlining the issue as with many other
conflicts there's a long and complicated
history behind the dispute however the
story essentially starts in March 1999
when following an escalation of fighting
in the southern Serbian province of
Kosovo NATO began a military campaign to
force the Serbian military from the
territory two and a half months later
Serbia which was still officially at the
time a part of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia sir
while formerly remaining under Yugoslav
sovereignty under the terms of UN
Security Council resolution 1244 Kosovo
was now placed under UN administration
pending a decision on its final status
following heightened tensions in the
province in 2004 the United Nations
Security Council authorized the start of
these status talks these began in early
2006
from the outset the sides were poles
apart Kosovo's representatives demanded
full independence the Serbian government
while willing to accept extensive
autonomy would not accept statehood by
mid 2007 it was clear that an agreed
settlement would not be possible
likewise any attempt to impose an
agreement through the UN Security
Council would be blocked varying another
upsurge of violence Kosovo's key
international supporters the United
States Britain France Germany and Italy
agreed that there was no option but to
allow Kosovo to declare independence for
its part Serbia supported by Russia
argued that any outcome must be mutually
agreed unilateral secession would be
unacceptable nevertheless on the 17th of
February 2008 Kosovo went ahead and
declared independence in the days and
weeks that followed the number of
recognitions grew quickly as well as the
United States Britain and France Kosovo
was also recognized by most of the 27
members of the European Union
it was also recognized by countries
closely allied to the United States and
European Union including Canada
Australia Japan and South Korea at the
same time Kosovo and its partners
engaged in an extensive lobbying
campaign while Russia China and a number
of regional powers such as Brazil India
and South Africa made it clear that they
wouldn't recognize Kosovo by the end of
2008 it had nevertheless been recognized
by 53 countries or 27.6%
of the UN members in the years that
followed the number of recognitions
continued to grow according to the
website Kosovo thanks you which was set
up to track recognitions 11 countries
nice crossbow in 2009 this was followed
by 18 2010 13 in 2011 and 13 in 2012 by
that point it seemed that Kosovo was
well on its way to full international
acceptance however five years after the
declaration of independence the pace of
recognitions began to slow significantly
so as things stood according to the
Kosovo thanks II website cosmo heard by
that stage being recognized by 116 UN
members this amounted to just over 60%
of the organization's total membership
the problem is that the figure of 116
recognitions on the kosovo thanks.you
website while widely cited was also
disputed indeed even the Kosovo Ministry
of Foreign Affairs lists a hundred and
fourteen recognitions meanwhile Serbia
also argued that both figures were wrong
so how many countries had in fact
recognized Kosovo as I explained in
another video recognition is not always
a straightforward as many imagine it can
be done in a variety of different ways
indeed it doesn't even have to be
formally announced it can be inferred
from the behavior of the country in
question naturally this tends to lead to
plenty of room for confusion if not
deliberate attempts to mislead this is
particular case in highly controversial
and contested situations such as Kosovo
while in the vast majority of instances
Kosovo's recognition was accompanied by
a formal letter or communication that
served as verifiable evidence of
recognition there were nevertheless a
few cases where the decision was not so
clear in two of these instances it
appeared as though senior Kosovo
officials appeared to have jumped the
gun and claimed recognition when it
hadn't happened yet or took the word of
an official as proof of impending
recognition for example few believed the
September 2011 claim that Nigeria had
recognized Kosovo given that the country
had fought one of the most bitter
secessionist conflicts in the world the
BRM war in the 1960s
likewise the February 2012 claim that
Uganda
had recognized was widely rejected by
most observers and even by former
foreign minister of kosovo neither of
these are now accepted as having
happened even though they remain on the
kosovo thanks ii website this could
account for the hundred and fourteen
figure on the kosovo foreign ministry
website although it's hard to tell as
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs site
doesn't actually list the precise
countries that have recognized in order
to cross-check in addition there are at
least three other recognitions that are
unclear in the case of the African
country of South Thome and príncipe the
government appeared to have decided to
recognize Kosovo and conveyed this to
the Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs
in March 2012 however this recognition
was denied by the country's president
additionally Serbia also claims a
government minister from another African
country loose suiting which supposedly
recognized Kosovo in February 2014 has
denied that his country did so Kosovo
counted them both Serbia didn't then
there's Amman this is perhaps the most
interesting of the three it seemed as
though its position had been
misconstrued by Kosovo probably as a
genuine mistake rather than as a
deliberate attempt of misrepresentation
when approached for recognition it
promised to welcome Kosovo's membership
at the UN this was interpreted as
recognition however it seems it wasn't
it was merely a promise that if Kosovo
was in a position to join the UN Amman
would support it a seemingly small but
important difference even now it's not
entirely clear whether Oman has or
hasn't recognized Kosovo as recently as
late 2018 the Serbian government
insisted that it had been assured by the
Omani government that it hadn't
recognized Kosovo again it's easy to see
how this ambiguity can arise even now
confusions occasionally arise for
example in early 2020 Kosovo announced
that Jamaica had recognized it however
the next state which Jamaica went on to
Twitter to deny that this had actually
happened so how many recognitions have
there been according to Kosovo the
number stands at 114
here goes with a slightly lower figure
at 111 however as you might guess this
isn't quite the end of the story as
noted in the first five years after the
Declaration of Independence Kosovo was
clearly winning the recognition battle
and even though the pace of recognition
slowed after 2013 it still seemed that
Kosovo would continue to make gains
however in 2015 the situation began to
change the Serbian government
successfully managed to stop Kosovo from
joining the United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNESCO encouraged by this Serbia now
stepped up its counter recognition
campaign as well as trying to prevent
recognitions it now encouraged states
that had recognized Kosovo to rescind
their decision in late 2018 Serbia won
its first major victory when it
announced that the South American
country of Suriname had withdrawn its
July 2016 decision to recognize Kosovo
since then the Serbian government has
claimed a further 17 countries have
changed their minds and have reaffirmed
that they now recognize Serbia's
sovereignty over Kosovo however as with
the case of recognitions these figures
have been disputed
initially Kosovo even argued that the
recognition wasn't even possible in
truth it is however it's extremely
unusual again this is another topic that
I hope to return to in a later video in
two cases Liberia and Guinea Bissau
Kosovo was subsequently informed that
there hadn't in fact been a change in
their positions they were still
recognizes as force Antonian Principate
and lassoo to their position is just a
Paik from start to finish
while Serbia claims that they have
withdrawn their recognition it also
argued that they never recognized in the
first place thus while it's not clear if
they should be counted as never
recognized or recognized and we drew
they probably don't count as
recognitions now as things stand on
balance however just as there would seem
to be good evidence to believe that the
vast majority of Kosovo's claims over
recognition are accurate so it would
seem that Serbia's
two of the 18 claimed 14 would seem to
be wholly legitimate certainly that
doesn't appear to be any evidence that
apart from Liberia and Guinea Bissau
any of the remaining countries named has
since called on survey to retract its
claim that they had withdrawn their
recognition or to informed Kosovo
otherwise on top of this two more should
be counted as either never recognized or
withdrawn recognition so how many
countries currently recognize Kosovo
notwithstanding the particularly
confusing positions of a man so I'll
totally and Principate and Lesotho it
would seem that the number of
recognitions now lies somewhere around
97 or 98 however it could be marginally
higher or lower and could of course
change any time either way as things
stand this amounts almost exactly fifty
percent of the total UN membership in
other words over a decade after Kosovo
declared independence from Serbia the
international community remains
remarkably even divided over its
statehood if you found that interesting
and useful here are some other videos
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