Citizens of Kosovo and Israel will be able to visit the other nation without a visa following an agreement between the two governments signed Tuesday, the Kosovar Foreign Ministry said, according to The Associated Press.
The visa waiver agreement was signed in the Kosovar capital, Pristina, by visiting Interior Minister Moshe Arbel and Kosovar Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla.
Gervalla was quoted by AP as having said the agreement will “open a new chapter in promoting our country, our cooperation and economic development, youngsters’ educational development and the implementation of joint initiatives and projects between our citizens and our countries in the future.”
The visa waiver will go into effect in September. No details on the length of stay were given.
In 2020, Kosovo agreed to recognize Israel as part of an agreement with Serbia that normalized relations between those two countries. The agreement was overseen by then-US President Donald Trump.
Kosovo and Israel established diplomatic ties in 2021 and Kosovo later formally opened its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, thus becoming the first Muslim-majority country to establish an embassy in Jerusalem.
Later, Kosovo's parliament endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
The IHRA working definition offers a comprehensive description of antisemitism in its various forms, including hatred and discrimination against Jews, Holocaust denial and, sometimes controversially, the way antisemitism relates to the ways criticism of Israel is expressed.