News

Kosovo marks 100th recognition, Abkhazia struggles to keep a handful of them

Yemen and Guyana join the list of Kosovo recognizers · Russia and China continue to deem independence as illegal · Confusion over Pacific nation Vanuatu diplomatic ties with Abkhazia · Georgia says Russia is suffering "very serious defeat" in the diplomatic arena

Little by little, diplomatic efforts are bearing fruit for Kosovo in the international arena. The Albanian-majority republic's Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj yesterday announced on Twitter that Yemen was recognizing Kosovo independence. This means that Europe's youngest republic marks 100 states acknowledging it as a sovereign state, after earlier this year Guyana also took the same decision. On the other hand, it is still unclear if Tanzania also recognizes Kosovo: last month, Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Behgjet Pacolli said Dodoma was also recognizing the country, but no official confirmation has been made by any official source from the ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Before the declaration of independence in 2008, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi had said that 100 countries were ready to recognize the republic as an independent state. It has taken five years before the prediction by Thaçi has been accomplished. The majority of those states are European, North American and Northwestern African countries. Besides, Kosovo is also considered an independent state by other regional powers such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Japan.

Other major powers such as Russia or China deem Kosovo independence as illegal, as it does Serbia. Such countries point out that Kosovo's unilateral secession was against the law since it did not have Belgrade's agreement.

But the International Court of Justice delivered in 2010 an advisory opinion on Kosovo declaration of independence at the request of Serbia. The Court said there was nothing illegal about declaring independence in the framework if international law.

Abkhazia could lose one of six recognitions

And while Kosovo enjoys the support of key world powers such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, Abkhazia is now the flip side of the coin. Having declared independence from Georgia in 1991, it was only recognized by regional master Russia in 2008, after a brief war against Georgia. Only Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua followed suit the same year. In 2009, the same move was taken by Hugo Chávez's Venezuela and by the tiny island nation of Nauru. In 2011 two other countries joined this brief list, also in the Pacific region: Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Other countries that had been named as eventual recognizers (Syria, Ecuador, Bolivia or Belarus) have not made the move.

And it is precisely Vanuatu who is in the middle of a struggle between the Abkhaz, the Russians and the Georgians. There is an enormous confusion on whether the Pacific country recognizes Abkhazia -last year some Vanuatuan leaders said it did, while others said it did not.

Last May, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announced that the new Vanuatuan Prime Minister Moana Carcasses Kalosil has told him the Pacific nation was no longer recognizing Abkhazia. "A very serious defeat" for Russia, Saakashvili then said.

But again confusion lingers over the issue, after Abkhazian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that the withdrawal of the recognition by Vanuatu is a "fantasy" created by Saakashvili. The Abkhazian side admits that within the Vanuatuan government there are "different opinions", but that no final decision about severing ties with Abkhazia has been taken.

And in the middle of this, an Australian Senate committee has expressed its "concern" about the fact that Russia is buying support from tiny Pacific states to Abkhazia. These actions are "a worry", according to the Australians.