January 11 (SeeNews) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed an agreement to allow Kosovo passport holders to enter the country without a visa, Kosovo president Vjosa Osmani said on Thursday.
“I thank the President of the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Mohamed Bin Zayed, for accepting my proposal to waive visas for citizens of Kosovo. The agreement reached during our meeting last month has now been signed,” Osmani said in a post on X (Twitter).
It was not immediately clear when the agreement will enter into force.
Kosovo citizens will soon no longer need visas for short-term tourist stays in the UAE, but a date has not been set yet, the Kosovo embassy in the UAE said in a social media post on Thursday.
The agreement follows a much-anticipated European Union-visa waiver for Kosovo, which enables Kosovo nationals to travel to Europe's borderless Schengen zone starting January 1. Kosovo, with a population of 1.8 million, was the only country in the Western Balkans where citizens still required visas to travel to the EU.
Kosovo’s foreign minister Donike Gervalla-Schwarz earlier this week said that Spain has also recognized Kosovo passports, allowing them to travel visa-free to Spain, although the Iberian state does not recognize Kosovo as a state.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and is aiming at EU membership. Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia are the five EU countries not to recognise the state.