Lamers: It is important to keep NATO troops in Kosovo in order to maintain region stability

It is important to keep NATO troops in Kosovo in order to maintain stability in the region, even if it entails staying longer there, NATO Parliamentary Assembly President Karl Lamers said at the end of a meeting with Romanian Senate President Mircea Geoana here on Friday.

When asked at a press briefing after the meeting about NATO's keeping its troops in Kosovo longer, Lamers stressed the original plan should be reviewed amid the events in the last weeks. 

What happened in the last weeks should be a reason to rethink our plans of withdrawing the troops very fast. There was a concrete plan, but I think it is more important for us to stay so as to keep the stability in the region. We must do this, even if it means keeping our troops in Kosovo longer, the NATO senior official said. 

Lamers underscored that stability in this part of the world is more important than fulfilling a plan made before a resurgence of violence. 

Therefore, we must rethink our plan, to see what needs to be done so that violence should not surge in this part of the world. We must rethink the situation and I think we must do what is necessary to be done in order to keep stability here, he said. 

The Romanian Senate President said the Kosovo issue will be also tackled during the bilateral meetings that NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will have with Romanian President Traian Basescu and with the Romanian Parliament leading officials. 

'This topic will be discussed in a direct manner on Monday', Geoana stressed. AGERPRES