NATO to scale down Kosovo force, German defense minister says

BRUSSELS – NATO’s peacekeeping force in Kosovo will be reduced by a third in keeping with the improving security situation in that newly independent nation, defense ministers said Thursday. German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said the recent deployment of a 2,500-strong EU police and law mission and the expansion of Kosovo’s own security force to about 2,500 by this fall will allow NATO to draw down its 15,000-member force to about 10,000. "We can now start a transition to a deterrence presence," Jung said as he arrived for the annual meeting of defense ministers from NATO’s 28 member nations in Brussels. Besides Kosovo, the war in Afghanistan and the naval anti-piracy mission…

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