WikiLeaks:
US pressured Maldives to recognize Kosovo

Recent documents made public by WikiLeaks have revealed that United States of America had used the then Maldives Foreign Minister Dr. Ahmed Shaheed to pressure the government of Maldives into recognizing Kosovo as an independent state.

One of the cables sent from the US Embassy in Colombo to US State Department and UN headquarters in New York details a correspondence between the former Maldivian Foreign Minister Dr. Ahmed Shaheed and US Ambassador Robert Blake, which took place on the 8th of January 2009.

Transmitted as unclassified, the report states that in an exchange with the Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the Ambassador had urged the Maldives to join the 52 nations across the world that had recognized Kosovo, and that Foreign Minister Shaheed had conveyed his eagerness to recognize Kosovo's independence.

The report stated that Foreign Minister Shaheed had said that he views the recognition as irrevocable, and that he had called on the government to recognize Kosovo during the presidential campaign.

“He noted however, that he first needed to persuade coalition partners in the Government to support his position. He requested Ambassador's assistance in making the case. Ambassador agreed and awaits Shaheed's suggestions on whom to contact,” the report stated.

The cable ends by stating that the US Embassy in Colombo will continue to push for recognition of Kosovo.

The next cable regarding the issue also shows a report of the correspondence between the two diplomats which took place on the 6th of February 2009, sent from the US Embassy in Colombo to the US State Department, their offices in New Delhi, Pristina, Belgrade, and the United Nations headquarters in New York.

It stated that the Foreign Minister Shaheed had contacted Ambassador Blake on 6th of February 2009 to share with him a text of the Maldivian Foreign Ministry's announcement that the Government of Maldives was committed to extending diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Kosovo, and that it noted that 55 other countries had recognized the Republic of Kosovo, and that Maldives is committed to a foreign policy that upholds the principles of the UN charter.

The statement then continues to commend Dr. Shaheed, stating that it was entirely the work of the “capable” Shaheed, and that the Embassy recommends that the Secretary Hillary Clinton to send a note to Shaheed to thank him for his personal efforts, once Maldives formally recognizes Kosovo.

The last cable includes a confidential report titled “Serbia lobbying Maldives to reverse Kosovo recognition”, sent on 9th March 2009 from the US Embassy in Colombo to the US State Department, their offices in Pristina, Belgrade, and the US National Security Council.

It states that the Maldives Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed contacted Ambassador Blake on 6th of March 2009 to indicate that Maldives' recognition of Kosovo had become controversial within the government of Maldives, and that on 9th March 2009, Shaheed reported that Serbia was lobbying the government of Maldives to reverse its recognition of Kosovo.

It notes that Shaheed had reported that representatives of OTPOR, who supposedly had long-standing ties to former President Mohamed Nasheed and his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), were attempting to persuade the Maldives government against recognizing Kosovo.

“Shaheed reported that Serbia was lobbying the government of Maldives intensively to get the recognition of Kosovo reversed. Shaheed noted that representatives of OTPOR, who have long-standing ties to President Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party, were speaking to President Nasheed directly in an attempt to influence the government of Maldives to de-recognize Kosovo. Shaheed told us that Srdja Popovic of the Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) and others were in Male to press Serbia's case in person,” stated the report by US Ambassador Robert Blake.

Otpor was a civic youth movement in Serbia that started in 1998 against the regime of Slobodan Miloševic.

Concluding the correspondence, Ambassador Blake requests the for a short thank-you note from Secretary Clinton regarding the recogonition of Kosovo saying that it would be a "morale-booster" for the Kosovo supporters within the government of Maldives and that it would help to fend off the attempt to reverse the recognition of Kosovo.