Dozens of Iowa National Guard soldiers will depart for Kosovo on Friday to join a longstanding North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peacekeeping mission at a time that the United States has warned of growing turbulence in the Balkans.
Tensions across eastern parts of Europe have risen since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with NATO being a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine and NATO countries being at the forefront of those assisting Ukraine with weapons — prompting threats from Moscow. The U.S. has provided more aid to Ukraine than any other NATO member, though the war has become a stalemate.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in October that Putin could be seeking a diversion in the Balkans, where that month a gun battle between Kosovo and Serbian representatives led to the U.S. warning of rising tensions and violence in the region.
Serbia has traditionally had a close relationship with Russia and Moscow last week accused Western countries of seeking to destabilize it after election protests, according to news agencies.
"The Iowa National Guard is proud and honored for our Soldiers to deploy and serve in our state partner nation of Kosovo," the adjutant general of the Iowa National Guard, Major General Stephen Osborn, told Newsweek regarding this recent deployment. "We are excited to be a part of a multi-national NATO mission for providing safety, security and stability for all citizens throughout Kosovo."
The Iowa National Guard service members on this mission will be providing those support operations to the NATO KFOR mission, not the Kosovo Security Forces (KSF). They will be conducting joint training and operations with the KSF as is done each year, but it will not be soldiers participating in the NATO mission.
The NATO KFOR mission is a rotating responsibility fulfilled by multiple National Guard entities, as well as many other organizations, both U.S. and multinational. The participation is not the result of the State Partnership Program, which is a security cooperation pairing of the Iowa National Guard with the KSF, while this mobilization is a mission for Iowa National Guard to support NATO members operating in Kosovo as part of the long-standing KFOR mission.
There are 88 state partnerships encompassing 100 countries. The U.S. has an embassy in the Kosovo city of Pristina.
A spokesperson for the Iowa National Guard said in an email to Newsweek it was not a new mission and had no connection to Russia and Ukraine. Newsweek also reached out to the Kosovo Defense Ministry via email for comment.
The partnership between Iowa and Kosovo went into effect on March 11, 2011, about three years after Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia and became recognized by the U.S. as an independent and sovereign country. Kosovo was previously a province of Yugoslavia.
Deliberations for a formal, long-term partnership began in March 2011, some eight years after Iowa soldiers had already been aiding Kosovo's peacekeeping efforts.
In August of that year, a 13-member delegation from the southeastern European nation visited Iowa for four days and met with then-Governor Terry Branstad, toured military facilities at Camp Dodge, talked with Iowa State University officials in Ames, consulted with state health and agricultural leaders, and visited the Iowa State Fair, according to the Des Moines Register.
As part of an invitation by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and Osborn, Vjosa Osmani, the president of Kosovo, visited Iowa's Camp Dodge in October to discuss topics including global security and strengthening the National Guard's military-to-military training.
Reynolds and Osborn visited Kosovo in June.
"Partnerships such as this one are the best example of what visionary leadership can do," Osmani said. "Our partnership grows stronger by the day as we expand our cooperation in all areas of common and strategic interest, such as defense, agriculture, tourism and energy."
It was her first visit to Iowa since being elected in 2021, and the first time a president of Kosovo had visited with the Iowa National Guard stateside since 2012.
The U.S. Air National Guard said in a report that Iowa guardsmen "made significant efforts to build ties" with the KSF in 2024, including Iowa airmen traveling to Kosovo in April for a large-scale medical training exercise.
In November, Osborn spoke in Des Moines as part of an end-of-mission farewell event honoring Artan Duraku, head of the Mission of the Consulate of the Republic of Kosovo. Osborn called Duraku "a key component of the strong relationship" between the Iowa National Guard and Kosovo.
This month, Kosovo Defense Minister Ejup Maqedonci met with U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, whom he referred to as "a great friend of Kosovo in the Senate and a big supporter of the Security Force."
The pair discussed bilateral relations and a path forward for NATO integration.
Friday morning's ceremony will be at the Waterloo Airport Army Aviation Support Facility, where a military aircraft will depart to Fort Cavazos, Texas, to complete pre-mobilization training prior to heading to Kosovo.
Update 12/29/23, 4:48 p.m. ET: This article was updated with more information and comment from Stephen Osborn.
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