Page 60 - bne_Magazine_February_2019

60 I Southeast Europe bne February 2019
Kosovan parliament gives nod to formation of army
Valentina Dimitrievska
The Kosovan parliament approved the transformation of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) into an army on December 14, despite strong Serbian opposition.
The future Kosovan army will have 5,000 active soldiers and 3,000 reservists. According to the Kosovan authorities, the transformation process may last 10 years.
The decision is expected to worsen rela- tions between Belgrade and Pristina, par- ticularly after Kosovo imposed 100% tariffs on imports of Serbian products recently, in retaliation for Belgrade’s lobbying against Kosovo’s application to join Interpol.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and has never been recognised as an independent state by Belgrade.
At a plenary session, chaired by speaker Kadri Veseli, MPs adopted three draft laws in the final vote related to the formation of the army, the parliament said in the statement.
State Department okays possible Turkey purchase of Patriot missile systems
bne IntelliNews
The US State Department has given its clearance for Ankara to potentially purchase a $3.5bn package of Patriot missile systems, according to an announcement placed on the website of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) late on December 18.
The announcement comes with the long running row between Ankara and Washington over Nato member Turkey’s deci- sion to buy S-400 missile defence systems from Russia unresolved. The S-400 is not compatible with hardware used by Nato and the military bloc is also worried that Turkey could theoretically test it against the new F-35 stealth fighter plane to gather sensitive performance data. Sales of the F-35 to the Turks have been temporarily suspended by the US while the issue is further explored and discussed.
It is expected that the decision by the Trump administration not to get in the way of a sale of Patriots to Turkey is an opening move in a bid to get the country’s S-400 contract cancelled, but Ankara said last month that the order placed with the Rus- sians was a done deal and the Kremlin said on December 19 that it was pressing ahead with the plan for deliveries.
“Should help recovery in markets”
The dispute over the S-400 acquisition is one of several issues that have this year caused a multi-faceted rift between Turkey and the US, taking an extra and major toll on Turkish markets already rocked by severe economic problems. Timothy Ash, a strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, said the Patriot announcement from the US State Department “marks
a further easing in tensions between Turkey and the US, and should help the recovery in Turkish markets”.
Ash added: “Cancellation of the S-400 contract is still key to the maintenance of the F-35 deal for Turkey, which is thought to be worth around US$12bn in terms of the manufacture of component parts in Turkey.”
Turkey has also been chosen to run a maintenance and repairs depot for F-35s in the air fleets of European Nato members including the UK.
In a note to investors on the Patriot development, Ash also observed that Turkey “cannot buy both” the US and Russian missile defence systems.
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