Is Kosovo part of Serbia? No, that's not true: Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, declared independence in 2008 and is recognized as a sovereign state by key European nations, as well as the United States and other countries, despite Serbia´s rejection of the move.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on July 25, 2023, with a caption (translated from Czech into English by Lead Stories staff) as "Yuck. Kosovo is Serbia." It featured a screenshot of an article by Idnes, announcing that Czech President Petr Pavel had appointed new ambassadors, including one to Kosovo. The headline of the article (translated from Czech into English by Lead Stories staff) is:
Pavel names 26 new ambassadors. For the first time, the Czech Republic will have an ambassador in Kosovo.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jul 26 14:45:09 2023 UTC)
Kosovo is a southeastern landlocked country, bordered by Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia and Montenegro, with a predominantly ethnic Albanian population. It declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008, and was recognized as a sovereign state by the United States on February 18, 2008. The majority of European nations, Japan, Canada and other Asian and African countries also recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state. Serbia, backed by Russia, has refused to recognize Kosovo´s statehood, as have China and five European Union nations.
According to an Al Jazeera report from March 19, 2023, the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia tentatively agreed to a plan proposed by the EU that includes keeping good neighborly relations and recognizing each other's official documents and national symbols. The EU sees ending the dispute between the two countries as a priority amid the war in Ukraine, as it fears that Russia may want to foment instability in the region, where it has historically had influence. Both Serbia and Kosovo have also applied to join the EU, with the latter submitting a formal application to join the bloc in December 2022, Reuters wrote on December 15, 2022.
The Czech Republic recognized Kosovo in 2008 and opened an embassy in Pristina. The country has never had a full-fledged ambassador as the two former Czech presidents, Miloš Zeman and Václav Klaus, opposed the step. Bohumil Mazánek, a Czech diplomat named by Pavel on July 25, 2023, will be the first one.
