The President of the Republic of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani delivered a speech today at the Halifax International Security Forum, during which address she spoke about the perspectives of the Republic of Kosovo and the challenges that our country has faced, both in the field of security and in battling with the pandemic.
She potentiated the importance of international cooperation and partnerships in order to tackle the pandemic and similar challenges successfully. For cooperation to work, countries must agree on common rules and strengthen international institutions through oversight. Furthermore, she highlighted the danger of Russia's malicious influence which is supporting autocratic regimes, destabilizing various regions of the world, including the Western Balkans, and through funding of disinformation campaigns is reducing people's trust in institutions.
Additionally, elaborating on battling with the pandemic President Osmani said that Kosovo had difficulties in dealing with the pandemic, due to a fragile health system inherited from the 1990’s and due to the fact that it was the last country in Europe to start with the administration of vaccines.
However, the President emphasized that despite all this Kosovo has made progress in the vaccination process.
“Kosovo has now become a leader not only in the region but also in terms of the percentage of vaccinated population,” explained President Osmani, indicating that our country has refused to receive vaccines from Russia and China. Further, the President has demanded no backing down against vaccine scepticism.
“It is our duty to convince our citizens that the vaccines we use are safe and that this is the only way out of this extremely challenging medical and economic situation,” said the President.
At the end of her address to the Halifax International Security Forum, President Osmani stressed the importance of international solidarity in situations such as the pandemic, strengthening transatlantic institutions as a way to protect democracy, fair economic competition and building sustainable societies and economies.