Newsletter No. 1390
News-Analysis
June 24, 2009

 

FIRST JAPANESE AMBASSADOR TO KOSOVO

Yesterday Akio Tanaka was accredited as the first Japanese ambassador to the Republic of Kosovo. Tanaka met with President Fatmir Sejdiu in Pristina and presented his credential letters. With this act, we may say that the diplomatic relationship has reached a new level. You may recall Tokyo recognized the independence of Kosovo on March 18, 2008, and established full diplomatic relations on February 25th of this year.

On the occasion of the first meeting between President Sejdiu and Ambassador Tanaka, the Kosovar leader stated, “Citizens and institutions of the Republic of Kosovo will always remain grateful to Japan for its important support given to Kosovo both during the war and also in the period of reconstruction and strengthening of our country’s democratic institutions.”

Japan does not yet maintain an embassy in Pristina, so Akio Tanaka will be a non-resident ambassador. His “main” appointment is as ambassador to Austria. He has been in Vienna since December 2007. Before that, it appears that he was ambassador to Nigeria from 2004 to 2007.

Japan-Serbia Relations Warm

When Japan recognized Kosovo in March 2008, Serbia recalled its ambassador from Tokyo as a measure of protest. The Serbian ambassador quietly returned to Tokyo, apparently, in October 2008.

A news story from this April suggests that Japan-Serbian relations have returned to normal and are even rather warm. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister for EU Integration and Minister of Science and Technological Development Bozidar Djelic visited Tokyo at that time to “help develop technological and scientific cooperation between the two countries and attract Japanese investors to Serbia.” Djelic called for “stronger political and diplomatic connections with Tokyo.”

Point is, there seems to have been no long-term negative consequences for Japan-Serbia relations as a result of Tokyo’s decision to become the 26th nation to grant recognition of the Republic of Kosovo.