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During a historic trip to Albania on Sunday, U.S. President George W. Bush -- the first American president to visit the Balkan country -- called for a final ruling on Kosovo's independence. The stop was one of many on Bush's tour of Europe following a tumultuous few days at the G-8 summit in Germany, at which Kosovo was a major topic of discussion.
The G-8 talks on Kosovo dealt more with the fact that this will be the first real test of relations between the global powers in decades than with negotiating an agreement that will benefit the secessionist region. As Russia, France and Germany assume new roles in the international community, the Kosovo issue has gotten caught between the competing interests of these powers and those of the United States. Meanwhile, the Serbs and Kosovars are growing impatient with the delays.
The Serbian secessionist region comprises 90 percent ethnic Albanians and less than 5 percent Serbs, though Serbia still maintains a tight hold on the province since it is the birthplace of the country's national identity. The United Nations and NATO began overseeing Kosovo in 1999 after a series of wars in the Balkans. At the time, none of the major powers knew what to do with Kosovo. Having just tackled the problems with their own separatist regions, the Europeans did not want to deal with another breakaway state; the United States under then-President Bill Clinton was growing increasingly preoccupied with its own domestic issues; and the Russians were furious with NATO for carrying out the Kosovo war without the permission of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC). Hence, the powers decided to stall for more time in order to see whether tensions in Kosovo would die down on their own.
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