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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nNATO and the United States warned Wednesday they could scale back cooperation with Kosovo’s security services if the government goes ahead with plans to transform its lightly-armed security force into an army without the required constitutional changes.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: AP<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Constitutional amendments would require voting approval from the ethnic minorities at Kosovo’s parliament. Serbia in effect holds a key say through Kosovo Serbs on whether the required constitutional changes can happen. Thaci said Kosovo cannot “coordinate with Serbia” on its own affairs and that “Belgrade cannot decide for Kosovo.” “NATO and our international partners should assist Kosovo during this transformation and never think of punishing it simply because Serbia is not convinced that Kosovo should found its own army,” he said. Serbia’s Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday said he expects “help and support” from the European Union, the United States and Russia over Kosovo’s plan. Vucic said the move was against the U.N. resolution that ended the war in Kosovo in 1999, and even against Kosovo’s own constitution, which Serbia does not recognize. Thaci said he asked Vucic at a telephone call Tuesday to tell ethnic Serb minority lawmakers to return to the parliament to vote for a number of projects including creation of the new army, and made clear to the Serb prime minister that the army would never be a “threat for Serbia or any other country.” “The response was disappointing,” he said. Both the U.S. and NATO are key Kosovo allies and have been helping to build up Kosovo’s security force. Relations between Kosovo and Serbia have been tense recently and the move is likely to make things worse. Kosovo declared independence in 2008. The move has been recognized by 114 countries but not Belgrade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NATO and the United States warned Wednesday they could scale back cooperation with Kosovo’s security services if the government goes ahead with plans to transform its lightly-armed security force into an army without the required constitutional changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":68363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1438],"class_list":["post-31286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"D5HI4BYTFZC6XMOEJS5ONR7DYI","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/03\/08\/u-s-joins-nato-in-warning-kosovo-against-move-to-form-an-army\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n