President Donald Trump thanked Kosovo for temporarily agreeing to accept migrants deported from the United States, according to the Balkan country's president.
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said she received a letter from Trump, who told her the move to welcome migrants was a sign of "strong cooperation" between the two countries, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
Trump added he looked forward to deepening ties “in the years ahead,” Osmani said in a Facebook post Tuesday.
The acting government of Kosovo has agreed to annually "temporarily" host up to 50 third-country deported migrants who couldn’t be returned to their countries of origin, Radio Free Europe reported June 11.
"The Government of Kosovo will have the ability to select individuals from a proposed pool, provided they meet specific criteria related to the rule of law and public order," acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti posted to X.
Bloomberg previously reported that, as part of the State Department's broader deportation strategy, the Trump administration would be pushing "Serbia and other Balkan nations" to accept deported migrants.
The State Department wants new countries to receive deportees, partly because domestic detention centers are expensive to run and often short on space.
Eswatini and South Sudan have also joined a growing list of countries willing to assist the Trump administration.
Libya, Rwanda, Benin, Moldova, and Mongolia were also among the countries the U.S. has asked to receive migrants, The Wall Street Journal reported April 1.
Kosovo in 2020 awarded Trump with one of the country's highest honors for his administration's efforts on peace and reconciliation in the former war-torn region.
Then-President Hashim Thaci awarded Trump with Kosovo’s Order of Freedom "for his exceptional contribution for the freedom of Kosovo and the strengthening of Peace and reconciliation in the region."
Trump was nominated for a 2021 Nobel Peace Prize after he helped secure a deal for normalized economic relations between Serbia and Kosovo.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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